Cleveland Cavaliers: Observations Two Games In
By Joshua Howe
Here’s one of the wild and crazy things about the NBA: no matter how talented a team is, or how good they are, they will be scrutinized by someone if they lose.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have already been in that sort of situation. In their first game of the season, LeBron James was so emotionally overwhelmed that he had a very poor game, resulting in a bad New York Knicks team coming away with a victory on Cleveland’s home court.
Immediately, thoughts were churned out on Twitter about how this Cavs team is going to be a bust, how LeBron is getting too old (not kidding, I legitimately saw this), how Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving aren’t ready to win.
What do I say to that? Phooey. It’s all loud noise. Blah blah blah. Shrug it off.
Guess what? The Cavaliers almost won that game against the Knicks, despite James shooting 5-15 from the field and committing eight turnovers. The game ended at 95-90, but that was only possible with some clutch shots by Carmelo Anthony. Once the fourth quarter began, the Cavaliers had started to turn things up and were very close to stealing the game.
Both Love and Irving hit some big shots down the stretch. They actually managed to get a few necessary stops. In short, if James had been James and Melo had missed on one or two of those last couple makes of his, the Cavs would be 2-0 right now.
They did not play a strong game and yet managed to put themselves in a position to win despite that fact. For a team with a new roster, it’s hard to ask for more than that.
Then, the next night, on a back-to-back, people suddenly changed their tune. LeBron was pretty good, Love and Irving looked professional, and the Cavs managed to beat their rival Chicago Bulls in their first meeting of the season.
Of course, Kyrie did receive a bit of heckling for this:
And yet, this game was no easy victory. It ended up being an overtime win, with the Cavs’ talent being too much for the Bulls in the extra period. But let us not forget that the Cavs were extremely close to losing this game, down five with less than a minute to go. And even when they came back and won it in overtime, the Bulls were playing without superstar Derrick Rose, who sprained his ankle.
Kirk Hinrich is good. But he ain’t Derrick Rose.
Essentially, you could say that neither of these games have really shown us anything. The loss wasn’t something to worry about, because playing at close to their worst the Cavs almost won. And the win is still something to be concerned about, because it came with the opponent’s star player going down, and then having to fight back to win in overtime.
But there were things that were evident in both games, that look to be the start of legitimate trends:
- When their shots aren’t falling, the Cavs will struggle because of their defense
- K-Love can and will make all NFL quarterbacks jealous
- Tristan Thompson will flourish in this new offense
- LeBron-Love pick and pops are nearly impossible to guard
- Shawn Marion may be more washed up than we think
- Dion Waiters will attempt at least two isolation shots a game
- Kyrie Irving will try harder than ever on defense
- Rim protection will be an issue
- Anderson Varejao’s hairline is the antithesis to LeBron’s
- For James to play fewer minutes, the Cavs will have to blow other teams out of the water quickly
It’s only two games, but most of these things are stuff that we knew before the Cavs started playing and have simply displayed themselves now as accurate, while some of it can be called based on past performances of players.
The meshing has begun, people. There’s a very good chance that we won’t know how good these Cavaliers really can be until Christmas. There’s going to be a lot of poking and prodding, nitpicking and shifting that goes on over the next couple months.
Expect David Blatt to try out some new things on defense. He’ll be looking to find a way to keep opposing players from penetrating inside, so that their lack of rim protection isn’t so easily exposed. Still, this will be a challenge, since Kyrie and Waiters as the starters aren’t great perimeter defenders.
He’ll also continue to try different lineups, as he’s done thus far over the past two games. He’ll try to find something that clicks. Something that works the best. Something that he can use when LeBron needs a breather. Something that breeds cohesiveness.
So we’re two games in, and the most important observation may simply be that this season is going to be one heck of a ride.