Recap: Atlanta 133, Cleveland 111 (or, Stink-tion Level Event)

Right now, the Cavs are arguably the worst team in the NBA. The Atlanta Hawks were ranked 29th in the NBA by ESPN’s preseason power poll, and despite missing a starter and two rotation players, the Cavs just gave them their first win. While the 30th ranked Kings won, the Cavaliers lost resoundingly to a team they were favored to beat by eight. To make matter worse, the Cavs rolled in the first quarter, going on a 20-2 run and sporting a 15 point lead at one point. Cleveland was outscored by 37 after that, and started the party by giving up 40 to Atlanta in the second quarter. The wine and gold completely lost focus and never never regain it. The Hawks smelled blood in the third and snuffed out any opportunity for a Cleveland comeback by amping the energy, and then eviscerated Cleveland in the final frame of possibly the most poorly coached Cavs game ever.

Cleveland had zero answers for Trae Young who exploited incompetent Cavalier defense to drop 35 with 11 dimes. The rookie went 6-14 from three, and became the first rook since Steph to put up 35 and 10 assists. Atlanta went three-hunting and was clearly trying to run it up late on the prideless Cavaliers, in revenge for years of playoff destruction. The Hawks set a team record by making 22 threes on 47 attempts. To say that teams have figured out that Mike Longabardi’s defense cannot defend the three point would be an understatement. If teams didn’t already know the Cavs don’t guard the perimeter, they do now.

I mentioned the First Quarter. The Cavs looked decent. Kevin Love got 10 and it looked like maybe Cleveland had figured out how to get him going. Tristan Thompson played off him well with three buttery jump hooks, but the dam started to crack when Jordan Clarkson came in and he, Collin, and the bigs kept leaving guys wide open at triple line as Longabardi’s haphazard switching scheme fell apart. Atlanta went 6-10 from downtown in the period, as guys like Omari Spellman and DeAndre’ Bembry got wide open looks, and cut the Cavs lead to 34-24.

In the Second Quarter, I cringed when Sam Dekker checked in, but he wasn’t the issue. He flashed a solid jumper for five quick points as the quarter actually started pretty well. Cleveland was up 12 at the 7:50 mark after a Larry Nance putback. Nance even had the play of the game when he skyed over Kevin Huerter to collect a Dekker lob and lay home through the foul.

But it fell apart because Collin Sexton was a disaster guarding Young, and kept needlessly pinching down on drives, or sticking with the big on the p/r to leave Young with no one within eight feet as he casually switshed a couple treys. Once Trae hit a yolo 30-footer, he was in the zone. Young just started blowing by everyone and met no resistance at the bucket as he went 6-7 for 18 points in the quarter along with Bazemore who filled the lane to get 10 points of his own.

It was laughably bad defense, as the wine and gold became completely unraveled and just kept making dumb play after dumb play after dumb play. WTF moments I saw included: George Hill giving the ball to Collin Sexton on the block as he was being double teamed by Len and Young, leading to a miss; Tristan Thompson playing too high on Alex Len giving him an easy spin and dunk; Jordan Clarkson giving Nance a dopey behind the back pass on the break that led to a Nance charge; Kevin Love leading a three-on-two break as he tried to go coast to coast, and missing a wide open Sexton in the corner as Kev clanked a layup; Sexton and Hill eschewing treys with no one around them to dribble into contested shots, multiple guys just staring at Alex Len as he dunked over littles in the lane; and Collin Sexton getting into Bazemore’s landing space on a three, which led to a flagrant foul as Baze made all three and then glided in for two more for a a FIVE-POINT FREAKING POSSESSION.

The starters minus Hood and plus Sexton were trash this quarter. They all went at least -10. It’s hard to blame Sexton as he’s a rookie, but the coaching staff also hung him out to dry with either an awful game plan or an unwillingness to pull him out and instruct when he was getting destroyed by Young. After leading by 15, the Cavs were down  down 64-60 at halftime.

The Third Quarter looked like it might offer some hope when it kicked off with another Thompson jump hook, but Cleveland turned it over on three of the next four positions. After Trae Young left George Hill and his orthotic walkers behind and scooped in a left hand finger roll, Ty took a rage timeout down nine. Only Rodney Hood kept it from getting out of hand as his 11 points in the first half of the quarter kept Cleveland within single digits. Naturally, after scoring 13 in the period, Hood didn’t play in the fourth.

K-Love’s struggles from the field continued, and He and Cedi kept throwing out dopey turnovers that led to points, like this steal, runout, and very ill conceived foul by Rodney Hood for a Taurean Prince hoop and harm.

The Cavs’ were hanging, but the D was brutal. Every point the Hawks made in the third came at either the three point line, the basket, or the free throw line, while the Cavs were living and dying on mid-rangers. The Cavs screen-roll D was a disaster. Two guys went with one guy or the other every time, and the Hawks had no challenges reading it. Collin Sexton lost his mind as he tried to turn it into a one-on-one battle with Trae Young and kept getting destroyed on D and jacking up dumb shots on O. The coaches should’ve pulled him out. I think this 37-footer by Trae might’ve broken him. Collin hilariously got two back the next time down on a 20-footer.

Jordan Clarkson’s hot shooting continued late as he and Nance teamed up to outscore Atlanta 7-4 in the final minute including this hilarious two-for-one drive that gave Jordan an “how the eff did he score that?” layup and the foul. Atlanta responded by getting two more point blankers for Omari Spellman to make it 92-86, Atlanta.

The dam broke in the Fourth Quarter. Trae Young scored or got guys layups on three of the first four Atlanta buckets, and despite Yolo Clarkson starting the quarter hot, a Huerter triple (on a Young dime) took Atlanta to a double digit lead and they never looked back. The Sexton shark show continued as he bricked a bad pull-up and then lost the ball going up on a layup, followed by an out of control layup, followed by a layup that was swallowed up by Alex Len. Someone should’ve told Ty he didn’t have to play Collin, especially when Rodney had his 13-point-third-quarter butt plastered to the bench.

It was a total coaching meltdown as the Cavs frustration became pronounced, and Kevin Love bricked yet another three while Bazemore started going nuts from the three point line and Alex Len (16 points, 11 boards, four blocks) kept filling the lane. Somehow the Cavs regained their bearings a little after a rage timeout, and had it down to 15 with 7:41 left after Osman and Hill hit a couple treys and an 18 footer. Baze and Bembre answered with triples of their own, because even when the Cavs are in the area on shooters, they don’t effectively contest.

Baze (23-5-4) clearly wanted to rub it in as he and Bembre kept jacking and then Kent stretched it to 20 with a layup, clearly relishing his “revenge.” Baze has always played the Cavs tough, which is why I wasn’t opposed to the idea of the Cavs eating his contract to move up to the third (or fifth) spot in this years’ draft. Heck, after this game, eating Parsons’ contract for the chance to draft Jaren Jackson Jr. seems like a bargain.

The Hawks kept on destroying the Cavs as Spellman gave them the 20th and 21st treys, and Huerter gave them their 22nd. Zizic notched a meek four in garbage time, before the game clock mercifully sounded. It was a lesson in early 2000s offensive philosophy versus 2018 offensive philosophy. The shot chart is comical.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Atlanta made one field goal all night that wasn’t a layup/dunk or a three.[/perfectpullquote] Yeah, you’re reading that right. The Hawks took five shots outside of the paint or the three point line. The Hawks look like geniuses for drafting Young and embracing the concept of 3>2, and the Cavs look like dunderheads running an offense conceived by Brian Winters.

And as more than one person has noted, “play faster” isn’t an offensive philosophy. The “anyone can bring it up” mantra does throw off the press, but also seems to lead to at least one or two wasted fast break a night. Oh, and there’s this.

I think there’s a lot of truth to this. We expected Lue to install more Love-centric sets (and just more/new sets in general). Instead, they’re basically running the same stuff with Cedi or Hood playing LeBron + more transition + more Love post ups. It’s pretty discouraging https://t.co/NoacKZj9ca

— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) October 22, 2018

As many have also noted, the Cavs haven’t changed the offense much aside from adding some dribble handoffs, and the sets for Love at the elbow are mostly nonexistent. The lack of shots from the wing and the corner are telling. There is no offense here, it’s basically improvised pick and rolls, improvised dribble handoffs, and Jordan Clarkson channeling his inner Kobe.

And yeah, “Tank Fuel” Clarkson is shooting well. He notched 19 on 12 shots, added two dimes and just one turnover. That’s not gonna last forever. He was also a game low -25 because his defense is as bad as Sexton’s. Yeah, Collin went 2-11 and was -23. If it feels like Collin shouldn’t have played 27 minutes, it’s because he shouldn’t have. It’s a coach’s responsibility to realize when a rookie is getting beat up and to get him out of there, especially when you’ve got a guard who’s balling like Hood was.

Rodney had 16 on 7-9 from the field and 2-2 from downtown, and only played 26 minutes and didn’t play in the fourth after dropping 13 in the third. What freaking game was Tyronn Lue watching? Clearly not the one I was when he described Collin’s problem as “fighting over screens” in the postgame conference, which is the opposite of what I saw.

Coach Tyronn Lue analyzes Collin Sexton's game against the Hawks. #Cavaliers pic.twitter.com/8DyyKtYajV

— Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) October 22, 2018

Ty Lue, Mike Longabardi and the coaching staff the Cavs assembled need to make major changes now. But they won’t because they, like the Cavs still feel like they’re better than they are. They don’t have a LeBron to bail them out, but they still take whole quarters off like the King is still in the building. Most of the players don’t get their goofy switching scheme, and they’re getting destroyed by teams with lots of shooters like Atlanta. Lue was still joking around post-game instead of realizing that this was one of the most embarrassing home openers in team history. Right now, this team stinks.

Kevin Love is majorly struggling with his J, shooting just 30% from the floor and 26% from three. They’ve got to get him three point shots on the wing and in the corner instead of above the break, and they have to get him the ball at the elbows. He might lead the league in rebounding (17 tonight), but he has no offensive confidence right now, and they need to get him some.

Cedi Had his worst game as a starter, but logged a team high 39 minutes as he went 5-15, -22, and five turnovers. He still hit a couple confident treys late. Why George Hill (+4, 7-9, 16 points), Rodney Hood (13-3-3 on 12 shots, 0 plus/minus), and Tristan Thompson (11 and nine, 0 plus/minus) all played fewer than 28 minutes and only Hill played in the fourth was completely freaking baffling

Ty Lue clearly can’t figure out who his best players are on a quarter to quarter basis, let alone from a game to game basis. If the Cavs are gonna run guys who can’t get stops, they might as well run Kyle and Channing, and execute some pindowns. Neither played a minute tonight, and don’t even get me started on David Nwaba who is a dude you might want to throw at Trae for a few minutes if you want to slow him down. Who knows? Clearly not this coaching staff.

Collin Sexton isn’t going to look this bad every night, but boy did he look bad tonight on both ends of the floor. Meanwhile Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, had a monster night (12-5-4, +21), helping the Clips get a win against the Rockets as he defended The Beard in critical situations. Oh, and the first rounder the Cavs gave up for the right to overpay Jordan Clarkson? Could’ve been Omari Spellman who lit up the Cavs for 17 tonight. Maybe this is a super secret tank job. I doubt it. This front office and coaching staff isn’t competent enough to pull that off.