Cavs Vs Nets: 5 Things We Learned

The Cleveland Cavaliers won again, this time on a last second shot from “The King.”

LeBron James is a bad man.

The Brooklyn Nets learned this the hard way on Saturday Night at the Quicken Loans Arena as James hit a running right-handed hook shot over the outstretched arm of Brook Lopez with one second left to secure a 90-88 victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

James had 26 points on 10/22 shooting from the field to go along with nine rebounds and five assists. He didn’t have a huge impact on the game until the final quarter when he scored 12 points, including the aforementioned game-winner. Kevin Love continued his hot form, putting up 26 points on a very efficient 8/14 from the field to complement his seven rebounds.

For the Nets, Lopez was a handful down low all night. The big man finished with 22 points on 10/15 shooting and nine rebounds. Lopez was able to finish around the hole all night long with an array of different moves and the Cleveland defenders simply had no answer. Joe Johnson had 17 points, including three clutch free throws in the closing seconds to draw the game at 88 apiece.

Here are five things we learned from the Cavalier victory:

The King Holds His Court

James was relatively quiet heading into the final quarter of Saturday Night’s game. He had a pedestrian 14 points and didn’t have the same impact on the game like he usually does. It wasn’t as if Brooklyn were necessarily shutting him down, as LeBron didn’t seem very aggressive, focusing on getting his teammates involved.

That worked, as the scoring outputs from Love (26) and Mo Williams (14) were able to keep the Cavs in touch with the three-win Nets for the first three quarters. James has taken this approach for most of the season, as he likes to get his teammates going early and then takes over the game when he needs to.

It worked like a charm against Brooklyn.

The Nets were on an 11-0 run midway through the fourth quarter, taking a seven-point lead off a Johnson triple. The Cavs were in major trouble of being embarrassed at the hands of the lottery-bound Nets (who don’t even own their first-round draft pick in next year’s draft by the way) and someone needed to step up. No surprise, LeBron answered the call.

Immediately following Johnson’s three-ball, James responded with one of his own. After a Cleveland stop, James attacked the basket for a lay-in plus the foul. He converted the free throw to finish the three-point play to draw the Cavs within one. After another stop from a feisty Cavalier defense, Tristan Thompson scored on the other end to give the Cavs the lead and some much-needed energy was pumped into The Q.

Then, in the games closing moments, James was able to hit two clutch free throws late to push the Cleveland lead to 88-85 and then came the game-winner, which was a very tough shot to convert for LeBron. James made the shot look easy but running and then jumping almost away from the basket over the outstretched arm of a 7-footer in Lopez is something very few players in this league can do. Sometimes, you just need to stop and marvel at LeBron’s greatness and it was on full display during the final quarter of Saturday Night’s game.

Turnovers Show Their Ugly Head

On the highlight reels and Sportscenter, videos of the game-winner will be shown time after time. What won’t be shown though are the 19 Cavalier turnovers on the night.

Yes, 19 turnovers.

It what was by far the ugliest game of the early season for the Cavaliers, as the team simply struggled to pass the ball to each other and keep it in their hands for most of the night. Miscommunications on offense leading to poor passes, offensive fouls or simply just throwing it away due to a lack of concentration, the Cavs treated the ball like a hot potato for majority of the night. They were sloppy and careless with the rock and against a better team; it would have cost them the match.

A concerning stat regarding the Cavs turnover woes on the night was that it wasn’t just one or two players who had a bad night. It was a full team-effort on the turnover front and yes that is a bad thing. James had two turnovers, Love had three, Williams had three, Thompson had two, Timofey Mozgov had three, JR Smith had two, Matthew Dellavedova had three and Anderson Varejao had one.

One can only hope that the 19 turnovers will just be chalked up to the Cavs having a bad night. Maybe it was because the team was on the second night of a back to back, although they had 16 turnovers the night before against the Charlotte Hornets, which is nothing to write home about. Cleveland is averaging 14.2 turnovers a night, which is a pretty solid number. For comparison, the league leading Golden State Warriors are averaging 16.2 turnovers a night. So maybe the Thanksgiving back to back was just an uncharacteristic one for Cleveland or maybe they just had off nights. Whatever it was, the turnovers need to stop.

Free Throw Woes Continue

While the turnovers were out of character, something that wasn’t out of character for the Cavs on Saturday Night was their free throw shooting troubles.

Cleveland was 11/17 from the charity strip against the Nets, good for a 64.7% mark. This is below the Cavs average of 70.6% from the line, which is third-last in the league behind only the Los Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons. It is no surprise that those two teams employ DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond, two of the leagues worst free throwers.

There is really no explanation for the constantly bad free throw shooting that Cleveland has dealt with all season. The team doesn’t have one horrible free throw shooter that brings the team percentage down like the Clippers and Pistons. In fact, Love and Williams are both shooting above 80% from the line this season.

The NBA is a make or miss league and this sentiment rings true for free throw shooting. In three of the Cavs four losses they have shot poorly from the line, as Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer observes:

"The Cavs have lost four games. Some of the losses can partly be blamed on lousy free-throw shooting.1. The Cavs were 10-of-17 at the line in the 97-95 loss to the Bulls.2. They were 17-of-27 in a 108-105 loss to Milwaukee.3. Shooting 12-of-20 against Detroit in a 104-99 loss also didn’t help."

A game come down to free throws 99% of the time. For Cleveland to fulfil their potential and ultimately be champions, the free throw shooting must improve.

Timo Struggles Once Again

It’s been a rough start to the season for Timofey Mozgov. He has had struggles aplenty and I broke them down a while ago in detail here. His tough start continued against the Nets.

Mozgov played only 17 minutes in his second game back from a shoulder injury and put up two points and six rebounds. That is very minimal production from your starting center. Mozgov was only 1/7 from the field, which is troubling considering majority of his shots come from underneath the rim, although Timo did shoot a three that missed against Brooklyn. To be fair, Coach David Blatt has encouraged Mozgov to shoot that shot if it is there and in the flow of the offense and the one he took against the Nets certainly was.

The major thing that Mozgov is having trouble with this season is finishing around the basket. For someone with his length and structure, Mozgov should not be having games shooting 1/7 from the field. Cavalier color commentator Austin Carr stresses this point every game and it is true. Mozgov needs to start going up strong around the basket and dunking the basketball. Too many times the big man is soft around the rim and attempts little lay-ins that simply are not going to fall.

Mozgov hasn’t made himself a presence so far this season. He hasn’t made himself a presence on offense, in the paint, on defense and even on the rebounding front. For your 7-foot center, this is a problem. If Mozgov continues to struggle and be soft around the basket, he will continue to see his minutes slowly dwindle.

Burn The Tape

Cleveland played their worst half of the year in the first half against the Nets. It was an atrocity of basketball put on display by the reigning Eastern Conference Champions.

At the half, the Cavs were shooting 39.1% from the field, 18.2% from the three-point line and 54.5% from the free throw line. They had nine turnovers and only seven assists. Not one Cavalier was playing well and it was no surprise that the Cavs didn’t hold a lead for one second of the first half.

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The second night of a back-to-back may have gotten to the Cavaliers, as they simply looked tired and half asleep in the first half. The Nets were running amuck, as multiple defensive miscommunications from Cleveland allowed Brooklyn easy points. In fact, the Cavs were lucky to be only down six at the half. If they were playing a better team, they would have been down a whole lot more.

The NBA season is 82 games long, so there will be bad nights and bad games. The first half of this one in particular for the Cavs was one of the worst they’ve played in a long time. Nights like these, you simply burn the tape and move on to the next one.

What did you learn from Cavs Vs Nets last night?