Defensive Assignments
The Cavs fell for the first time this season, losing 86- 95 to the Knicks.
Most of the time, losing to the Knicks would be an embarrassment, but Tom Thibodeau has these guys playing hard and fast. He’ll probably run them into the ground over the next few years, but Thibs gets results in the short-to-mid-term, at least until he loses the team. These Knicks came in riding high off of a win against the Bucks.
Time will tell if this is a “new” Julius Randle, but we couldn’t do anything with him all night, and I’m not sure we have someone on the roster who could if he’s committed to playing with the force, aggression, and vision he demonstrated at the Field House tonight. The Knicks’ big man was a terror on the hardwood tonight, dropping a cool 28-11-12 line while shooting a scorching 4-4 from behind the arc. On the (young) season, he’s averaging 24-6-10, shooting above 55% from the field and 56% from long range.
If he keeps this up, the Knicks and the Cavs might actually have some relevant games between them this year.
Make-Or-Miss League
The real story to this game, even more than the Cavs coming in short-handed (Okoro, Love, Delly, and Porter all unavailable), was the Cavs opening cold as ice (7-32 from deep, 22%), while the Knicks came in on absolute fire (14-25 from long distance- 56%). That’s 2x as many 3’s made, on 7 less shots. If the Cavs shoot even 35%, they get the “W”. The only Cavalier who worked into any sort of a rhythm was Darius Garland, who finished up 3-8.
Slow Start, Strong Push
The Cavs couldn’t really do anything in the first quarter, getting down as much as 32-16. Drummond kept them in the game, and he was a monster as the Cavs closed the gap throughout the second quarter. He finished with an 18-2-17 line, and was one of the only efficient offensive players outside of another strong supporting performance from JaVale McGee, who scored 11 points and grabbed 9 boards in just 16 minutes.
Multiple times, the Cavs closed the deficit, but were just never able to get over the hump. It’s going to be to be tough when Nance was a minuscule 9-3-6 in a whopping 43 minutes, and Cedi reverted well past the mean going 2-12 from the field.
In the end, the Knicks’ turnovers almost let us back in the game, but you have to put the ball through the hoop to win, and that wasn’t what we were about tonight.
Silver Linings
How cool is it to be able to dissect a loss and point to issues that aren’t “we’re terrible”?
How cool is it to have gone into a game with the expectation that we win?
I’m a firm believer that this Cavs team is building something, and a game like this is just a test.
Plus, we’re still on pace for 71-1.
News
- Kevin Love will miss the next three weeks at a minimum after reaggravating his calf injury.
- The Cavaliers have received a variance from Governor DeWine’s office allowing them to increase capacity to 10%- 1,944 seats, up from 300.
- Sinclair is still holding Cavs games hostage following their purchase of the Diamond RSN group; They have been dropped by virtually every streaming package known to man, and there’s no word that they will be back this season.