Recap: Cavs 96, Thunder 90
2012-03-09
–Kyrie [Gleeful Expletive] Irving. On one hand, he was a mere 4-for-12 from the field. On the other hand, the Thunder frequently tried to take the ball out of his hands, and he obliged with 12 assists and just one turnovers. On the mutant third hand growing out of my chest, he single-handedly won the game in the final two minutes, twice blowing by the Thunder’s perimeter D for buckets at the rim, then putting Kendrick Perkins on his backside before dishing to an open Antawn Jamison for an uncontested lay-in. He also held Russell Westbrook to 19 points and four assists on 8-for-17 shooting. Anytime he wants to post a respectable defensive effort against one of the best point guards in the league, I’m cool with it.
–The Cavs had 21 offensive boards in this game, in part thanks to the board-crashing of Tristan Thompson, who pulled down six offensive rebounds. TT had an awful shooting night (2-for-8), but, y’know, he tried hard.
–Anthony Parker played great. He pulled out all his best old man defender tricks on the perimeter, and he was 6-for-8 from the field. I feel compelled to mention this because, I’m not sure if I’ve been dumping on Parker a lot in these recaps, but I’ve certainly been cussing him out in my living room.
–Shouts to Alonzo Gee for not looking like a scrub against Kevin Durant, who has a habit of making professional basketball players look like scrubs. KD missed a couple decent looks late, but you can’t complain about holding the best pure scorer in the league to 23.
–One can only hope that TT studies tape of Serge Ibaka. Dude was a shot-swatting menace in this game.
–The Thunder were 17-1 at home before this defeat. I believe, using the transitive property, that this makes the Cavs the third-best team in the league.
The Cavs return home to face the Rockets on Sunday. Enjoy the weekend, friends.
Yeah, Scott is doing a great job at preventing us from becoming the Wizards. I’d much rather have us win a few extra games this year while establishing a winning, hardworking culture than underachieve with whatever mess they have in Washington.
Nathan,
That’s where I believe Coach Scott comes in with some intangible. And by intangible, I mean being at least 2 feet up each of his player’s asses.
@Alex, i guess my point is that before the Denver game…hell, even after the Denver game, this teams felt pretty solidly like a lottery team. After the OKC game, though, i feel like this really is a playoff caliber team, especially with Varejao back. The Cavs just took it to a level I hadn’t seen them at since they lost Andy. It hardly even felt like a scrappy underdog upset…the Cavs showed some serious poise I didn’t think they had, especially under pressure in the fourth.
Real shame about Rubio. I’d been enjoying watching the t wolves all season.
well, we have our ROY.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7669679/minnesota-timberwolves-ricky-rubio-torn-acl-report-says
@Nathan: I never said luck was involved and I don’t think this win was due to any luck. It’s just that this team isn’t quite good/experienced enough right now to be able to perform at this level consistently. Kyrie is really good, but still has his off days (he only scored 9 yesterday). Gee, while greatly improved from last year, still has inconsistent results. I think games like this show where this team can be in the future, but I don’t believe that this is some magical turning point that will turn them into a plus-.500 team the rest of… Read more »
What a strange game. Good god, the Cavs were all over the boards. I will say it looked like Oklahoma was waiting for the Cavs to beat themselves all night, and they never did. Gee’s defense was great all night, as was Irving’s. Just great team defense all the way around. I still say the Thunder will never win in the playoffs consistently with Westbrook at the point. He’s a 2 guard in a point guard’s body.
i would like to start an “Alonzo Gee for Most Improved Player” campaign. Somebody buy a billboard.
@Alex, there were some flukey reasons why the Cavs won last night, to be sure, but there were some non-flukey things too. I won’t say OKC is a great team at shutting down their opponents’ passing, but they were sure trying hard to do so last night. Irving’s 12 assists to 1 turnover under these circumstances are not something that happens to a mediocre passer when he gets lucky. They’re what happens to a GOOD passer when he gets lucky. We can now feel quite certain that Kyrie a better passer than his current season averages of 5.4 assists and… Read more »
People’s predraft evaluation of Kyrie is becoming as ridiculous as Jeremy Lin’s story. He is playing at a level as rookie that most people thought he could reach after maturation. This kid’s basketball IQ is stupid high. He is truly embracing the PG position and Hollins, Gee, and Jamison all are benefiting because of it. Joy.
As far as the game specifics, Gee, Boobie, and even Kyrie and Ramon were totally ballin on D. Gee and Boobie completely shut down their perimeter guys and our rotation D was pretty solid. Samuels even rotated well. I love defense. The End.
Great win for the cavs. Hope it reinforces their confidence in themselves and their ability to beat elite teams. Just gotta play like that for 48 mins every night. Side note: when is patience for Omri Casspi gonna run out? The dude is a non-factor. He had a three point attempt blocked back in his face last night,got denied at the rim a few mins later, missed two free throws in a row, and generally resembled a wet paper sack the whole night. He camps out on the three pt line and looks to the refs for sympathy constantly. He’s… Read more »
“I want to be Kyrie Irving when I grow up.” Best comment this season.
It’s crazy just how quickly Irving has already surpassed my wildest post-draft expectations. i want to be Kyrie Irving when i grow up.
@Nathan: No, no, no… just no. If there’s one thing we should have learned so far this year (besides the fact that Kyrie is really good at basketball) is that young teams are incredibly unpredictable. The Cavs started off 4-3 and promptly lost seven of the next nine (including four in a row). Then they had decent wins against the Knicks and Celts with a “turrible” loss to an awful Nets team. And remember, just a few days ago everyone was worried that we would fall off the face of the earth during a 6 game losing streak and a… Read more »
Kyrie is just sick with the ball. John Hollinger called him a taller Chris Paul the other day which is what I’ve been thinking but not saying cus I didn’t want to jinx his career arc.
More than anything I’m loving his passing these days. We know he can shoot – so even though he hasn’t been uber-efficient lately it hasn’t bothered me. But I’ve always been concerned about his dishing abilities. He’s shown me recently that he can set others up. Also, I love that he never settles for shots. Always looking to attack.
Is it too soon to revive our cautious optimism about making the playoffs and getting smashed in the first round by the Heat? The Cavs have suddenly started doing something right in the last few games, and soon we’ll have a center who can consistently do right things too. Catch the fever?
Cooley was right on about Gee getting in KD’s head. With the game on the line, KD took some really terrible shots that should have gone in, but didn’t, because of how apprehensive he was.
Kyrie is a fourth quarter god. My faith in the world has be restored. We just beat two of the better teams in the NBA in a two day period. Lets do it Sunday and complete this crazy week!!!!
This game proved to me what I’ve long felt about Kevin Durant: If an agile, strong perimeter defender gets up in his grill, he’ll get tentative. He just looked like a huge wuss tonight. Gee did, to an extent, what Memphis tried to do in the playoffs last year to him. It worked very well.
Also, I think Kyrie palms the ball almost every time he dribbles. This bugs me to no end, because I used to scream bloody murder when Allen Iverson did it.
It’s been a while since I watched the Thunder play. A couple years back they were my ‘team I root for when the cavs aren’t playing’. I don’t like their style of play too much now. Very iso heavy, isn’t it? Something about KD’s style of play rubs me the wrong way, even though he really is an offensive god. Hmm.
It was awesome, but I still feel a little disappointed at not getting to see Manny
“10:22 Tristan Thompson makes hook shot”
Is this true? If so, then the Cav’s victory may only be the second most miraculous event of the night.