Playoff Recap: Cleveland 116, Boston 86 (or, “We Could be Royals…”)

The immortal words of the Bard, Dennis Green, rang true in this one: “They are who we thought they were.” But the Cavs didn’t let the Celtics off the hook. The Cavaliers mounted their steeds, lined up for a cavalry charge, trampled the Celtics front line in a 32-17 first quarter, cut through the reserves to push the lead to 20 in the second, and routed any rallies in the Third. The Leprechauns managed to cut the wine and gold lead to 18 early in the second half, but never got closer as the good guys methodically out-played and out-executed the clovers to the point that Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were talking about everything except the game: flagrant fouls, Dorris Burke’s daughter graduating from law school, and the the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, the new Duke and Dutchess of Sussex…

It was a boringly effective win for Cleveland – well, boring if you weren’t a Cavs fan. If you were, you savored every minute, because you know this is how good they can be when they’re not playing like peasants. There were lot of heroes in this one, and since we know how good this team can be, we’re going to confer some titles in our player grades. The King and his men should know they are capable of playing like this every game.

George Hill, I dub “Sir Firstsword, knight of opening quarters.” Hill was instrumental in the Cavs early lead. He scored or assisted on the Cavs first nine points and was aggressive in looking for his shot and running the offense. On the very first play, Kev and George ran a side pick-and-roll from the right corner and George turned the corner and got to the rack on Terry Rozier for the game’s opening bucket, then he found Tristan for a dunk, and then flared to the right corner for a no-hesitation triple off a beautiful skip feed from the King. Hill finished with 13 points and two assists, with his shooting falling back down to earth (4-11) a little as the game went on, but his defense remained engaged, he didn’t turn the ball over, and he was a threat.

The biggest development of the night came in the second, when Boston went under on a pick-and-roll and Hill canned a three off the dribble. That is the first time I can remember Hill hitting that shot in the playoffs. Perhaps his back is healed. If he can keep it up, it will open up so many possibilities for the Cavs.

Tristan Thompson: Master at Arms, Screener to the King, Securer of Rebounds, “the Talking Knight.” Sir Thompson set the tone for this one with his comments at Thursday’s practice.

“We all have strengths and weaknesses. Some guys aren’t huge communicators, but at the end of the day, it’s the playoffs. It’s for all the marbles. We’re down 0-2, if you don’t like to talk, you’re going to talk now. And if you don’t want to talk, you’re going to sit your a– on the bench.”

Thompson backed up his talk with defense. The starters were on a string and rotated and helped for each other as beautifully unlike they have all year. Every starter finished at least +20 in this one and Thompson finished with 10 points seven rebounds (three offensive) and his activity helped the Cavs get to 50-50 balls all night.

J.R. Smith Esq., Royal Pipefitter and Artillery Gunner, J.R. was a part of those five starters on a string, though his biggest contribution was throwing up three point bombs that magically found their way to the hole and smashed the Celtics’ castle walls. Smith finished 3-4 downtown on his way to 11 points, and five rebounds. His work on the boards was indicative of the Cavs’ desire to secure the ball, as everyone crashed when a shot went up. The Cavs just the ball more. Check out this sweet Thompson screen and three from Smith.

Kyle Korver, Sherriff Kenneth of Powerstown, Royal Parabolist, and Commander of his Lord’s Catapults.I’m quite sure that Kyle would’ve been in charge of a siege engine in medieval times. His adeptness at firing over the defense, repositioning, firing again, and being exactly on target more often than not would’ve ended many a castle defense. Korver was ridiculous in this one as he scored 14 in 20 minutes and was a perfect 5-5 from the field with four of them coming from downtown. Whether it was from the Cavs’ unguardable baseline screen, a cut off a Larry Nance post-up, or a catch-and-pump-fake-and-shoot, Kyle hit nothing but net all night. In fact he even had a three waived off after Nance was called for an illegal screen. If Kyle is that “on,” teams have to account for him. Boston didn’t tonight, and he made them pay. Let’s hope Kyle’s Korners are pits of woe for opponents for the playoffs’ remainder.

Sir Lawrence Donnell Nance the Second, the rightful sixth man of the Cavaliers, screen slipper, pilferer of passes, thumper of dimes. Yes, Larry (no his name’s not really Lawrence) did it all, and ended up getting the most time of a very balanced minutes distribution for the bench. In 21 minutes, Larry went 4-4 for eight points, six rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Larry cheated off Aaron Baynes more than once for blindside steal on a post entry pass. He rebounded as well as I’ve seen him, and slipped screens with perfect timing to help the Cavs’ balance their attack with great looks at the rim. Nance was the recipient of three dimes from the King and one from Osman in garbage time that made the CtB faithful swoon.

Jeff Green, Earl of Mediocrity was… ok. +5 in 18 minutes, Jeff had a couple buckets, one that rescued a possession with a nice post-up, and an inside dime from King James over fairly lousy Celtic defense. Green also missed two “there’s a reason you’re open” three-balls and contributed zero rebounds in 19 minutes, which was at least seven minutes too many. Jeff wasn’t bad, and at least the Kevin Love and LeBron centric bench units didn’t die on the vine with Jeff out there. But Finally, at least, Lue is playing Nance more minutes.

Sir Jaylen Brown of Beantown, terror of transition, the green dunkrobat, evil archer of triples, was thankfully quiet this game. Hobbled by early foul trouble, he dropped 10 points on 3-8 shooting, and the Cavs did a decent job of seamlessly switching, handing Brown off to multiple defenders, and giving Jaylen many bodies to get through to get a good look. Still, Brown loosed a fiery arrow from each corner that sliced through the net and reminded us what a dangerous scorer he can be. Thankfully he was as disconnected and passive as the rest of the Celtics this game.

Prince Jason Tatum, Royal Heir of Dorchester, the Vizier’s Gambit, Netslayer, the future King of the Garden and the Atlantic Division. Tatum is genuinely terrifying and God willing, will be a green crusader for the better part of the next decade. His high-release, high arching jumper is absolutely filthy, and he can get anywhere he wants on the basketball court. He moves fantastically well without the ball, and has a penchant for drawing fouls that stymied the Cavs all night. He is so young, but already has so many older players’ tricks as a scorer: pump fakes, step-throughs, spin moves… He’s a legit threat to lead the league in scoring some day, and while Brown tried to do most of his scoring with the ball, Tatum got open without the ball, getting to the corners and creases and behind the Cavs’ D to be a threat all night. Tatum scored 18 and was -11 (high among the starters) but thankfully only added one rebound, dime, and block. If the Cavs can keep him to just being a scorer and under 20, then they’ve done their job. But holy hell, he’s going to be a scourge.

Not a scourge? Marcus Smart, the muscled Jester of Flops returned to the Marcus of yore when he went 2-9 from the field and 0-4 from outer Saxony. Smart dribbled into a pair of foul line swishes early on, and thought he had it going as he fired away for the rest of the night. The Cavs were happy to let him take all he wanted, and even happy to concede a flop offensive foul he drew on Love in the post. An interesting wrinkle happened early when the Cavs guarded Smart with King Bron who promptly snuffed out any thought of Boston posting up Marcus like they’d done earlier in the series with him on Korver and Clarkson. In fact the Cavs often stuck Korver on Monroe, Ojeleye, and Yabusele. Smart was a bench low -19

Marcus Morris, the Funyun Knight was a team low -28. It shows you how ineffective he can be when you don’t let him get in your head and let him have an “edge.” Morris was generally passive, complained about calls, and did lots of woofing all night to little effect. Cleveland held him to eight and five boards, and Kevin Love especially was fantastic on him, stopping him twice in isolation and twice at the rim. Morris tried to do a little too much with coast to coast bricks and just five boards. It helped that he was often out of position at the three when Brad Stevens tried to play he, Baynes, and Horford at the same time.

“Scary” Terry Rozier, Squire to Sir Irving, and future overpaid merchant of buckets was far from scary. He shared the Celtics general disengagement, threw up a team high 12 shots, and made just five of them. Rozier is going to get overpaid soon and settle into the role of starter for a bad team or 7th man for a decent one. George Hill handled him well.

Al Horford and Aaron Baynes: The Carribean Hound and The Ginger Molehill were no threat inside as Al got just four shots, Baynes went 3-7 and they combined for just thirteen rebounds in almost 53 minutes. The Cavs controlled the glass against these two and made Baynes especially look hapless on offense (though he did can another yolo trey). The Celtics threw a third big in the game for stretches: Greg Monroe, AKA Cementfoot, Mercenary for the Defeated, Limp Sellsword. Monroe was about as hapless as you’d expect. While he was 4-5 from the field, he couldn’t keep up with anyone. Monroe getting beat by the Duke Love was one of the evening’s highlights.

Kevin Love, Duke of Elyria, Lord of the Glass controlled everything on the d-boards with 12 of them in 29 minutes. He and the rest of the Cavs boxed out, tipped, jumped, and grabbed every ball they could for a 45-34 rebound advantage. Love was aggressive, and while he was just 4-12 from the floor, he looked for his shot, made great passes, and absolutely rebounded like a ogre. Love finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds with four assists, a steal, and 2-3 great contests around the rim (though no block was credited). Love was just 1-4 downtown, but 4-4 from the line (and would’ve gotten there more if not for the evil referees). The bigger flaw in his game was four turnovers including a pass or two to no one, but he made up for it with four dimes, including these two sick highlights to LeBron.

“President” Brad Stevens of Indiana seemed to know it wasn’t his team’s night in the early as he played a lot of role players he might not normally in the second and third, and seemed to concede before the fourth quarter. For all his genius, he hasn’t figured out how to make his team play better on the road, and they seemed dispassionate and passive. Cleveland has to hold serve Monday and figure out how to win one in the Massachusetts colony.

Hand of the King, Tyronn Lue, the Marquis de Stress coached one of his better games by playing sane rotations, not exhausting his starters, and keeping one of Kevin Love or LeBron on the floor at all times. Sane lineups included Love, Nance, Green, Clarkson, and Korver to start the second with LeBron taking Love’s place to start the fourth. As Right Down Euclid said on the live thread, “It’s like we’re an actual functioning basketball team with uniforms and shoes and plays!”

Lue also didn’t play Rodney Hood (DNP – Locked in Dungeon) after adamantly insisting he would. Still, LeBron James marked 37 minutes in a blowout, and we still saw far more Jeff Green and Jester, Jordan Clarkson (a comical 3-11 from the field in 18 minutes), that we saw of Ottoman Ambassador, Cedi Osman, a far better option at the guard or wing.

Osman and fellow royal ambassadors, Jose Calderon of Spain, and Ante Zizic of Croatia combined for just six looks at the basket in garbage time that resulted in one field goal and two trips to the line. Their shots were stolen by the Jack of Chuckits, Jordan Clarkson who just threw up everything he got his hands on. Thankfully Clarkson got a bit hot from three, going 3-7. If that can sustain, it would be a nice bonus.

Finally, King LeBron James, breaker of records, father of dimes, “the chose one,” Lord of the chasedown, King in the North Coast, and first of his name. His majesty set the example for his court, going +31 and playing the kind of defense he wasn’t playing in games one and two. The Cavs were not content to concede everything, challenged shots, and flew to open men even when the primary defender was beat. James added two steals and two blocks with his aggressive defense, and helped the Cavs win the turnover battle 15-14 (a vast improvement over the first two games). James was aggressive, but helped set his teammates up by moving without the ball, thus opening lanes through the defense, and helping the aggressive Cavs outscore the Celtics by 30.

LeBron finished 8-12 from the floor 3-3 from three and 8-10 at the line. He also got his Cleveland lean going on his charity stripe follow through which helps him immensely. LBJ added 12 dimes, including some ridiculous p/r feeds and just three turnovers. Most importantly, he didn’t have to be divine to do it. The Cavs managed his minutes and played a balanced lineup helping to preserve the mantra, “Long Live the King.”

We could be royals, you know. At least basketball royalty. Cleveland is gunning for its second title in three years, and its Cavaliers are doing their best to prove that you only need to play 16 great games to win an NBA championship. Games like this though remind us of the divine right of basketball kings, and that when the best player in the nine realms is your leader, and you all play hard, you can be as good as anyone and better than most. All of the royalty was on hand Saturday: Dhantay Jones, Boobie Gibson, Richard Jefferson were all at the Q. It’s so much fun that the Cavs have fostered a culture where players want to come back and be a part of James’ court. Long may he rein o’er the North.