Recap: Cleveland 110, Indiana 99 (Welcome Back, Kevin)

Something happened between Wednesday’s game against the Magic and Saturday night’s home opener. The Cavs remembered they had Kevin Love, and Kevin Love remembered that he can be really good at basketball. Cleveland rode a monster 39 point second quarter and built their lead all the way out to 24 in the early third. Despite a late rally by the Pacers that got them as close as seven and a series of facepalm inducing possessions by Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, the Cavs held on.

The Cavs maintained the lead by getting the ball to their big men. Throughout the night the Cavs’ offense was at its best when Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love got their touches, and sputtered when they didn’t. The Cavs’ sets of choice looked a lot more like last season’s with high post touches, elbow action, and guards cutting off bug man handoffs and back door passes from the wing. The Cavs were also able to get the ball into Love and Thompson on the post. Matthew Dellavedova and Cedi Osman did a nice job of feeding the post by setting up on the left wing and corner to find the best angle, and when the Pacers overloaded, the Cavs swung it to the weak side for open Js and drives.

Kevin Love was masterful at drawing fouls, getting Domantas Sabonis in the air three separate times at the three point line, and abusing T.J. Leaf in the post too. When he wasn’t swinging the ball around with nine assists, Love was canning jumpers and grabbing rebounds, and finish the first half a perfect 4-4 from the field. Kevin ended the night with 21/13/9, and frankly could have had more if the Cavs’ guards and let him touch the ball more. Kev was also great at finding his frontcourt mate, Tristan Thompson.

Thompson played like an all-star on both ends of the court, and was more than once the beneficiary of a great Kevin Love pass. But that undersells how much Tristan Thompson has grown as a player. His hook shot has become one of the NBA’s best, and so far in this short season, he’s one of the league’s best non-dunk finishers. The ambidextrous Thompson can post up from either block, and score his hook from up to 12 feet. He also has the touch to finish floaters, and is still an effective two handed dunker. As impressive as his inside finishing ability has become, this game made history for Thompson because he did something that has eluded him for nine NBA seasons. Thompson, as the shot clock wound down in the second, launched a 26-footer and nailed his first NBA three-pointer.

John Beilein on Tristan Thompson having the green light from three now: "No. No. No. No way. (laughs)."

— Greg Swartz (@GregSwartzBR) October 27, 2019

Thompson did take another triple later in the game, and the results were not nearly as pretty. Despite the red light, Beilein did say that Thompson practicing more triples in practice was helping his touch, and it’s hard to argue with the results. In addition to scoring on the block, TT finished as the roll man, on weakside cuts, and on the lob. Thompson netted 25, 13 boards, three blocks and a game high +23. I certainly expected Thompson to be better this season, but I didn’t expecting him to be this good. Thompson scored the biggest bucket in the game when the Cavs were reeling and he dribble drove on Myles Turner to put the Cavs up nine with 55 seconds left and ice the game. Tt’s playing like an All-Star in the Cavs first two games.

Proportionally impactful were the Cavs’ other two bench bigs, Larry Nance Jr. and John Henson. Nance dropped nine and four, including a couple big dunks and a triple, while Henson played just eight minutes, but added two emphatic blocks and covered a multitude of defensive sins for his young teammates. The Cavs had seven blocks this game, which is an improvement that can’t be understated.

For comparison, the 29th ranked team in blocks (Detroit) had 12 such games last season.

— Eustacchio Raulli (@EVR1022) October 27, 2019

It certainly seems that if the Cavs have any shot at being not-abjectively-awful, the offense and defense have to run through the bigs. When the offense wasn’t running through TT, Love, and Nance, Cleveland struggled. While Collin Sexton posted 18/5/3 and +10, he hijacked the O more than once down the stretch to disastrous effect. Youngbull had me, Austin Carr, and broadcast guest Brad Daughterty screaming at him late, especially when he wasn’t using all of the shot clock with a lead. Sexton was much better as a non-initiator. Catch-and-shoot threes, cuts to the basket, and timely drives on closeouts were Sexton’s bread and butter. More than once he had a nice hockey assist on a closeout drive. But when he pounded the rock, he missed rollers in the p/r, drove into bad situations, and generally rode an “I gotta get mine” mentality, it led to less than ideal results. Still, he had his moments.

The Cavs’ other young guard, Darius Garland had 12 and four dimes with four turnovers , and just a 0 in the plus/minus, but hit an enormously timely three-ball late, and had a couple slithery drives to the basket. You can see the potential there, but he’s gonna have his struggles. Both guards have to just learn to trust their teammates and the offense, especially late in games. Sexton particularly seems to be empowered more than he probably should be. In his defense, the Cavs put the ball in his hands a lot last year sans Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love. Readjusting to his new normal and realizing he has to be off the ball more, and that he may have to give up some scoring for Cavalier success is going to take time.

Surprisingly, the Cavs’ best guard this game was Jordan Clarkson, who only indulged his penchant for chuckery a couple times. Otherwise, he moved well without the ball, found his teammates, and finished plays, posting 15 on eight shots in just under 18 minutes. It was a solid outing. Matthew Dellavedova was also a steadying force adding three dimes and just one turnover in 18 minutes where he went +11. Holy crap, though, is he in a shooting slump. Including preseason, Delly is 0-13 in the last four games from downtown. In two games before that, he was 3-9, but two of those were clankers that miracled their way in. Better teams will sag off Delly till he beats them.

Cedi Osman struggled a bit too, getting just 1 point and going 0-3 in 27 minutes, but he played good defense, moved the ball. It just rarely came back to him. Beilein really seems to like to give Kevin Porter Junior his minutes. KPJ did have a migraine inducing drive or two, and three tos to two dimes, but he also had his share of moments, including two big blocks, and an emphatic alley oop finish from Darius Garland. KPJ did much better when he didn’t force the iso, but he was still 0-3 from downtown. One of those turnovers was a charge called on him against T.J. McConnell that was absolute BS, so mark that one in his favor too.

I’m taking this win with a grain of salt due to the late scratch of Jeremy Lamb, and the relative lousiness of the Pacers. Edmond Sumner struggled as did former Phoenix forward T.J. Warren. While they didn’t shoot horrible percentages, they struggled defensively, and Domantis Sabonis’ early fouls loomed large, as he finished the game with five, including a couple on offensive fouls he just couldn’t stop himself from committing. What won this game for Cleveland was their defense on Indy’s bench, whom they held to 8-27 from the floor with six turnovers.

The Cavs new defensive coordinator, J.B. Bickerstaff is to be praised. The Cavs defense was on a string, and multiple guys were giving multiple efforts on multiple possessions. Covering for each other and seamless switches and rotations when the first defender got beat were the norm for the night. It’s a far cry from what we saw for the last two years. The Cavs defenders seemed engaged and empowered. It’s like night and day. We’ll see how that D really looks Monday.

The Indy starters managed to add 11 turnovers of their own, and only Malcolm Brogdon shined. Despite the brilliance of the Cavs’ bigs, Brogdon was the best player on the floor all game. He went for 30 with 10 dimes and only one turnover in 34 minutes. Those are superstar numbers, and Milwaukee missed him as they blew a big lead to the Heat. If Brogdon stays healthy, keeping Bledsoe over him is going to look like an enormous mistake for the Bucks. Thankfully, the Cavs had two stars, and the Pacers just one.

This win was an enormous confidence booster for Cleveland, and helped start off the season with a win in an emotional night at the Rock. The Cavs honored Fred McCloud throughout the night with ties seen on many an announcer and fan. We heard a mashup of famous McCloud calls at one point during the game. There was even a tear inducing statement from a noticeably thinner Dan Gilbert, who was clearly still recovering from the effects of the stroke he experienced this summer. Get well soon, Dan.

Also in the building to kick of the 50th season for Cleveland were Cavs greats Joe Tait, Larry Nance Sr., Bingo Smith, Mark Price, and the aforementioned Brad Daughtery. There was even an apparent Andy Varejao sighting in the stands. It definitely led to a feel-good aura that permeated the whole night. It will be a tougher order Monday when the Cavs travel to Milwaukee to take on a Bucks squad who are probably irritable over blowing a big game against the Miami. Until then, let’s hope Delly is practicing Js and Garland and Sexton are boning up on post entry passes.