Recap: Philadelphia 132, Cleveland 130 (or, Positively Fourth Street)

The Cavs dropped to fourth tonight, that’s true. But it was a strange game that saw the Cavs down by 30 in the second quarter, and then storm back to a one point deficit before J.J. Redick hit two free throws from an intentional foul with 12 seconds left. Amazingly, after trading free throws, LeBron had a shot to tie when with 3.3 seconds left, Kevin Love lazered it from the baseline to the right wing on the other side of the court, and then Robert Covington committed a boneheaded foul by pushing the King out of bounds as he was shooting a three. James had three freebies to tie it, but missed the second, forcing an intentional miss of the third. Larry Nance had a chance to tip it in, but the ball rimmed out, as did the Cavs’ control of the third seed in the East.

The first half wasn’t nearly as exciting. It was a moribund death march that featured the Cavs watching a lot of basketballs instead of going after them. The Sixers out-executed, out-energized, and out-competed the Cavs up and down the floor and at one point led by 30. Cleveland did manage to cut it to 23 by halftime, which went a long way towards their comeback attempt in the second. The Sixers were led by an electric Ben Simmons who could do anything he wanted as he posted up the Cavs time and again, scoring with an unstoppable jump hook when played one on-one, and finding all his teammates when doubled. Simmons came two assists shy of a triple double in the first half, and the Cavs had no answer for him as he led the Sixers to an insane 78-55 lead at halftime.

The Cavs also short-circuited when chasing the Sixers around screens or playing pick-and-roll and LeBron got awful sloppy with the ball with his five turnovers. Jordan Clarkson also ignored teammate after teammate to jack six shots in eight minutes.

The Sixers defense (and the Cavs’ lack thereof) allowed them to sprint out to huge runs in the late first and throughout the second, as J.J. Redick, and Marco Belinelli got hot from three and dropped 19 and 12 respectively. Irsan Ilyasova got it going inside. Richaun Holmes obliterated a couple of Cavalier shots and Markelle Fultz was putting drives in the basket.

The Cavs also got outrebounded 28-20, giving up five o-boards, which I’m sure all led to points. It wasn’t about talent, it was about effort. Cleveland stared at so many loose balls and played with no cohesion or force. Only a ridiculous half by Jeff Green gave Cleveland a sliver of a hope as he went 6-6 and dropped 17. His shot was insane this game.

The second half was a different story. LeBron James poured in 35 in 20 minutes, attacking almost immediately from the start. Osman canned a trey out of the gate, followed by a pair from James for an impromptu 9-2 run. Simmons, though, just kept attacking the rack. and throwing ridiculous dimes. But the Cavs defense tightened up and held the Sixers without a field goal for almost five straight minutes in the third.

The 76ers were as unprepared in the third quarter as the Cavs were in the first half, and quickly got discombobulated as James just. Kept. Attacking. Cleveland blitzed the Sixers for a 16-2 run before a Belinelli jumper made it a nine point game. It was an insane stretch that saw multiple dunks from the King and a complete inability of anyone in a Philly uni to stop him. He scored 19 in eight minutes in the quarter.

Unfortunately, LeBron isn’t superhuman and took a breather at the five minute mark. Jordan Clarkson started turning it over and throwing up garbage, as he ignored his teammates and made all us CtBers mental.  The Cavs did have Cedi though, who found Love for a sweet three by dribbling in and using his body to cut off Loves defender and then pitched it out to him for three (an old Delly trick). Cedi had five points, three dimes, and three boards in the quarter.

Love dropped eight in the last four and a half minutes of the third, but a trio of three-balls by a scorching hot Marco Belinelli (off some bad J.R. Smith and Jordan Clarkson D) helped stretched the lead to twelve before the Cavs had to get LeBron back in to stop the bleeding. A couple great possessions from Jeff Green, a Love trey, and two more drives by LeBron cut the deficit to 105-98 to end the third.

A disappointing start to the fourth quarter saw Ilyasova cut for an easy layup, and it seems that no matter what, the Cavs just don’t foul to stop layups in the regular season. The Sixers do, but Jeff Green was fearless at the line, going a perfect 8-8 on the night. The Cavs kept grinding, and Lebron was relentless. Cleveland used screens to match James on Bellinelli and LeBron kept abusing Marco in isolation and then destroy him.

A personal 8-0 run by the King in the form of two treys and layup cut it to 111-109, but the Sixers have Ben Simmons and getting him into the post is always a great option. Simmons threw in a ridiculous hook, James went cold, Jordan Clarkson started throwing up stupid shots again, and the Sixers started a disturbing trend of getting offensive rebounds as a Covington putback and an “are you kidding me?” runner from Richaun Holmes pushed the lead back out to eight.

Crunch Time: the Cavs answered, and after his fellow Turk took him into the post and slopped in a butt-ugly hook, Cedi started playing inspired defense, shutting down Ilyasova the next time down the court. James kept dunking and Jeff Green kept swishing freebies. But the Cavs just couldn’t close the gap. They’d cut it to three, and Redick would hit a J, or Simmons would finger roll in a sick little layup. (Again, why in God’s name don’t the Cavs foul?) They’d get a rebound and the ball would bounce off Cedi’s hands out of bounds. The deficit bounced between three and five points over and over, always just out of reach.

The games’ most unfortunate trend came in the last three minutes as Cedi Osman had three wide open triple tries and clanked all three in addition to a huge free throw, any one of which might have been the difference in the game. In Cedi’s defense, he played all but three minutes of the second half and didn’t have the legs he might otherwise. Personally, I think it will just serve as inspiration.

After the a Jeff Green layup on a backdown over JJ Redick with three minutes left, the score stood at 123-120, Sixers. The Cavs seemed poised to take the game, but those two Osman three point misses sandwiched around a Simmons layup hurt badly. Even more painful, Philly’s 12th offensive rebound of the game came when Simmons got his own miss and kicked it to Redick in the right corner who went draino to put the Sixers up eight with 1:34 left.

J.R. calmly swished a trey from the King nine seconds later, and James cut into the passing lane stole the ball, barreled down the court and… pulled up for three? He missed and Osman rebounded but only made 1-2 at the line to leave the deficit at four. The Cavs forced a stop but their ensuing look was a Love 29-footer after he hadn’t touched the ball since the third. He missed and the Cavs forced another stop with just nineteen remaining and the Cavs down four.

https://youtu.be/vuVjemW8Sw0?t=128

Jeff Green hit absolutely his most ridiculous shot of the night (queued up above), a step back three after a pump fake with Redick on his hip that we were all shocked went through the rim to cut it to one with 12 seconds left. The Cavs and Sixers played the free throw game, with the Cavs fouling Redick, the Sixers fouling Bron and the Cavs fouling Irsan, to leave the deficit at three with 3.3 seconds left. I described the ending sequence in the opening paragraph, but I’ll just add that it’s a lot to ask for Bron to go 5-5 from the line in the final twelve seconds, and that one miss was the game. Nance’s tip attempt was JUST short, and you have to wonder if they could’ve used his rebounding much earlier in the half. Check out the final sequence below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvEqwQbfgjY

Thoughts:

LeBron James was incredible in the second half and clearly rattled the Sixers. The Cavs just couldn’t control enough rebounds or hit enough shots down the stretch to win. These things happen when you spot a team 30. LeBron was an insane 44-11-11 on 29 shots in 40 minutes. He was relentless and looked like the best player in the universe. But it was the little things that kept this one just out of reach: eight turnovers, 6-11 from the line, and the missed defensive rebounds. It seems insane that we’re asking him to be even more perfect.

The Cavs failed to defend the rim or get critical defensive rebounds. There a couple reasons why. First, the Cavs played Tristan Thompson and Larry a combined 13 minutes (and let’s not even talk about Ante). That explains the lack of rim protection and some of the rebounding. They went with Jeff Green for 40 minutes, LeBron for 41 minutes, and Cedi Osman for 21 minutes of the second half (even more than James). They were gassed and had a hard time rebounding. There’s also this stat

Cavs only rebounded 62.5% of the Sixers misses with Jeff Green at C
The groups have rebounded an NBA-worst 67.8% of opponent misses on the season.
They simply cannot clear the defensive glass and that killed the Cavs tonight

— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) April 7, 2018

There was a lot of hand-wringing over this on the live thread, but you cannot blame this loss on Jeff Green. Green was absolutely locked in as a shooter, took no dumb shots, and made almost everything .The dude scored 33 on 10-12 from the field and 8-8 from the line. That’s incredible. He also added three dimes and four defensive rebounds. Three of the Sixers’ most crucial offensive rebounds had nothing to do with Jeff Green. One bounced off Kevin Love’s head, one slipped right through Cedi’s fingers, and one sat there with LeBron and Cedi staring at it expecting the other to grab it. Jeff Green has his issues, and perhaps he gets lost at times on D, but he was sublime, Friday night.

Now could the Cavs given more of his minutes to Larry Nance, who, as we’ve noted, has been jerked around for the last two months? Probably. But it seems to me that Nance is still gimpy, and we all know how poorly Tristan Thompson played Thursday (he did have a couple nice hustle plays in the first half). Could Lue have found 10 more minutes for Nance in the second? Yes, but he also had a lineup that was killing it, and he was trying to ride it to a win.

And yeah, I know Lue’s default setting is to ride LeBron as much as he can in the playoffs, but I can’t say I blame the dude. And yeah, you can say that maybe Kyle should’ve been playing instead of Cedi late, but you’re splitting hairs if you do. You can’t ask Cedi to pass up wide open threes when you give a guy like Jeff the Green light. Cedi just missed. LeBron just missed free throws. The Cavs missed offensive rebounds. It happens. You can’t blame the coach for that. He put them in a position to win in the second half and it didn’t come together. Still, I’ll focus on the positives of Cedi’s incredible defense, Jeff Green’s offense, and LeBron’s sublime play.

You can blame Ty for the first half, but the team just wasn’t playing hard, and then the game snowballed on them. It is hard to blame him for lack of effort, even though this is still true.

Just a random observation, but it seems some of #Cavs’ issues this season are exclusive to the games where Ty Lue is on sidelines. (And weren’t there under Larry Drew.)

— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) April 6, 2018

Also on the rebounding, Kevin Love has got to be more physical. He went up weak more than once in the first half. And yeah, the Cavs need to box out better.

It was a tale of two halves, and while the first was abysmal, but there are positives we can embrace. Cedi Osman will learn from this and get better. Jeff Green might really be able to build off this game. LeBron James is still the best player in the universe, and Kevin Love’s three ball is locked in (they just have to get him touches earlier in the fourth). The Cavs were this close to winning without a point guard in a game where they played like hot garbage during in the first half on the second night of a back-to-back.

Parting Shots:

Kev finished with 17 and 9. It wasn’t enough. He has to be better. Go get the ball if you’re not getting it passed to you, Kev. Start knocking some guys around.

A vet or a coach Clarkson respects has to sit down with him and tell him to stop making horrible decisions or he’s going to get benched. He had at least three mind numbing moments tonight where he took a horrible shot, went one-on-three, or just made a terrible turnover.

Kyle Korver helped saved the first half, and the Cavs were rolling when he started the second half for an injured (precautionary) Rodney Hood. Korver is a joy to watch every game.

I heard a rumor that TT and J.R. Smith are out of the playoff rotation. I don’t buy it on J.R. the dude had two absolutely clutch threes tonight. They’re going to need him.

Ben Simmons is for real: 27-15-13 with three turnovers on 12-17 shooting. The guy’s post game is light years ahead of where LeBron’s was at the same age. His hook shot is unstoppable and he can shoot it with either hand. He could be an all-timer.

It almost seems unfair that the Sixers have Belinelli and Ilyasova off the scrap heap. They combined for 40. Just makes me sick.

Love to see Larry Nance get going.

The Sixers will stumble and let the Bucks take them down in the final game to get the Cavs back into the third seed.

LeBron James is a force of Nature