Cavs Vs Pacers: 5 Things We Learned

The Cleveland Cavaliers extended their winning streak to six games on Sunday, with a tightly contested 101-97 win against the Indiana Pacers. The victory marked the extension of a few impressive streaks for the Cavs.

The win gave the Cavs a 24-1 record over their last 25 regular season games and it also gives the Cavaliers a 24-1 record at the Quicken Loans Arena since January 19^th of last season. Another notable streak was also extended with Sunday’s win, as Cleveland has won 26 straight home games when scoring at least 100 points.

Forward Kevin Love overcame a slow start and ended up having a monster game, putting up 22 points, 19 rebounds, three blocks and two assists in 39 minutes. LeBron James continued his MVP-type start to the season, as he scored 29 points, pulled down six rebounds and dished out four assists in 35 minutes. Tristan Thompson had 16 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Paul George led the Pacers, as the former All-Star scored a game high 32 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had six assists. Monta Ellis had the hot hand for Indiana in the second half, ending the game with 25 points. The loss marked the end of the Pacers three game-winning streak.

Here are five things we learned from the Cavs Vs Pacers:

LeBron and Tristan Record Milestones

In what seems like a daily occurrence nowadays, LeBron James accomplished yet another impressive achievement in Sunday’s win.

On his eighth made field goal, a 15-foot jumper with 7:45 remaining in the third quarter, James moved past the logo, Jerry West, for 19^th all time in made field goals. While this achievement was met with a lot less fanfare then his historic 25,000^th point last week, it is still an incredible achievement and something that is worth taking note of.

As for Tristan Thompson, he also had himself a nice achievement on Sunday, as he passed Phil Hubbard for 7^th place on the Cavaliers all-time offensive rebounding list. When you consider Thompson is only starting his fifth pro season, it is a pretty impressive feat.

Love The Second Half

Kevin Love struggled in the first half against the Pacers. At half time, Love had only three points on 1/6 shooting from the field. It seemed as if it was going to be a dirty afternoon for the curly-haired Cavalier.

Although, whatever Love did at halftime, he should do it more often, as he had a sensational second half, putting up 19 points and 12 rebounds in the final two quarters. Those numbers eclipsed (or was just below in terms of rebounding, which is saying something) Love’s per game numbers for the season of 17 points and 12.6 rebounds. As I mentioned early, Love was one rebound shy of a 20-20 game, finishing with 22 points and 19 boards.

LeBron has said on multiple times during the season’s first couple of weeks that Love is the focal point of the offense. This has raised eyebrows, as James never mentioned this about Chris Bosh during his days with the Miami Heat. If the fourth quarter of the Indiana game is any indication, then James has backed up his statement.

Love had 11 points in the last quarter and came up with two major buckets in the final minute to ice the game for the Cavs. With the Pacers only down 5, the Cavs came out of a timeout and executed a beautiful play which ended up with James passing to Love, who got himself open after a spin on Lavoy Allen and finished with an easy lay-in under the basket. For the minutes before that the play, Cleveland’s offense was consistent of LeBron ISO’s, with little to none ball and player movement. To see the Cavs execute a set play out of a timeout in the clutch for Love was encouraging and shows how many options Cleveland has in crunch time.

Then, after a Paul George three brought the Pacers back within 2, the Cavs used wonderful ball movement to break a full-court press, which ended with Love converting the easy dunk to put the icing on the cake for Cleveland. Seeing the Cavaliers go to Love on multiple occasions during the last quarter was something that wasn’t seen last season. Sunday’s game is evidence that Cleveland is doing everything possible to get him more involved in the offense and it is working like a charm so far.

Keep That Ball Swinging

Ball movement has been a vital aspect in the Cavs 6-1 start to the season and Sunday’s game was no different.

The Cavaliers had 25 assists on 38 made field goals and are now averaging 26.1 assists on the season, third in the entire league. The Cavs have a 66.3% assist percentage, which is fourth in the league and also possess the league’s second best assist to turnover ratio, which is 1.89.

Last season, the Cavs were an ISO-heavy offense and they ditched David Blatt’s ‘genius’ offense early in the season. That hasn’t occurred this season, as we are seeing signs of how effective this offense can be when the ball is moving on a consistent basis and Cleveland are getting easy looks as a result.

Matthew Dellavedova, who has been criticised for not being able to run the offense, had a game high nine assists against Indiana. Dellavedova is now averaging 6.1 assists per game on the season and has showed signs of being able to run the offense at a high level. His pick and roll combination with Tristan Thompson has been a headache for teams to defend all season. Mo Williams also had himself a nice passing game, finishing with eight assists on the night.

Timo Sits Again In The Fourth

Hours before Sunday’s game, Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group spoke to Timofey Mozgov regarding his limited minutes in the fourth quarter.

"Cleveland Cavaliers center Timofey Mozgov has only appeared in the fourth quarter once out of the team’s six games.The big man isn’t pouting. It’s all about the team’s success. He’s just staying ready for when his number is called. But why isn’t the 7-2 rim protector seeing action down the stretch of games?“You’re talking to the wrong person,” he told cleveland.com. “That’s all I can say.”“We’re the players. We want to play,” he said. “It’s not a miracle. You see Sasha [Kaun] right here. Ask him if he wants to play or no. He’s going to tell you. It’s like every guy on the team. So it’s not a secret.”"

Well, on Sunday’s game the pattern continued, as Mozgov only played 23 minutes, none in the final quarter, as Blatt went with a frontcourt combination on Love and Thompson to end the game.

While it is tough for Mozgov, the fact of the matter is, the Cavs have simply been a better team with Thompson on the court compared to Mozgov this season. They play at a greater pace, move quicker on defense and simply flow better as a complete unit with Thompson playing over Timo.

The NBA is moving towards an era where the traditional big man is no longer a key clog to a team. Actually, the NBA is probably already in that era. Smaller, more athletic fours and fives are the flavour of today’s NBA and playing Thompson over Mozgov in the final quarters of games is a sign of how the Cavs are moving towards this trend.

Mozgov is a free agent this summer so his minute total and game time in the final quarter is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Sidenote: Anderson Varejao didn’t get any minutes during Sunday’s game.

Defense

Cleveland’s defense has been a mildly surprising aspect of the early potion of the season and that carried on during Sunday’s win. The Pacers shot only 43.3% from the field during the game but Conrad Kaczmarek brought up a good point regarding the Cavs defense against Indiana.

Cavs weren't fantastic on offense, but Pacers hit lots of long 2s. Defense was excellent otherwise. Just another win without top 3 guards.
— conrad kaz (@conradkaz) November 8, 2015

Long 2’s are the most ineffective shot in basketball, so it is a positive sign that the Cavaliers are forcing teams to take those shots. It shows in the stats. Opponent field goal percentage is a major stat inside the Cavalier organisation, as they have a board inside the locker-room ranking all 30 teams in that stat.

More from King James Gospel

While the Cavs currently sit 13^th in the league, they are still only allowing teams to shoot 42.8% from the field, a number that represents how improved this defense is. For comparison, the Cavs allowed opponents to shoot 45.6% from the field last season.

The Cavs are moving their feet quicker on D, communicating better, icing the pick and roll which forces a lot of those long two point attempts and are also doing a better job at protecting the rim and then pulling down the defensive rebound. Everyone knows that defense wins championships and the Cavs are doing their part in ensuring that their defensive is a formidable one.

What did you learn from Cavs Vs Pacers? How are you feeling about the Cavs so far this season?