Cavs Vs Blazers: 5 Things We Learned

The Cleveland Cavaliers snapped their 3 game losing streak last night. Here are 5 Things We Learned from the Cavs win.

It took the Cleveland Cavaliers a half to wake up on Tuesday Night but once they did, the defensive pressure was turned up to another level and shots started to fall, as the Cavs snapped their three game losing streak, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 105-100 at the Quicken Loans Arena.

LeBron James took over in the final quarter, as the extra days rest he had when he sat out Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat seemed to pay dividends, as he scored 14 of his game high 33 points in the final quarter. James was 14/24 from the floor to go along with his 10 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals on the evening.

Kevin Love continued in his mini shooting slump but he finished with 18 points on 5/12 shooting from the field but he was able to get to the foul line 10 times on the night, converting eight of those attempts. Matthew Dellavedova had one of his most effective offensive games of the season, putting up 17 points on 7/12 shooting from the field. Jared Cunningham and Richard Jefferson both had seven points off Cleveland’s bench.

For the Blazers, their starting backcourt caused the Cavs problems all night long. Damian Lillard tied James’ total of 33 points, as he went 14/27 from the floor, including knocking down four three-pointers on the night. C.J. McCollum was just as good, finishing with 24 points, shooting 10/19 from the field and like Lillard, hitting on four three-point attempts on the evening.

Here are five things to take out of Cleveland’s win over Portland:

Second Half Wake-Up

Everyone should remember whatever was said or done in the Cavalier locker room at half time of Tuesday’s game, as the Cavs looked like a completely different team in the second half against Portland.

The first half was a disaster for the Cavs- they went down by 18 points at one stage and they were not defending, as the Blazers constantly got easy looks over and over again. The offense was completely out of rhythm and it seems as if Cleveland was heading towards another embarrassing blowout on their home floor.

Then, the second half happened and everything turned around for the Wine and Gold.

The tone for the second half was set right at the beginning of the third quarter, as Portland had nine turnovers in the third quarter, as the Cavs defensive pressure and attitude was completely opposite to what we saw in the first half. Cleveland was flying all over the defensive end, forcing the Blazers into tough shots and making them turn the ball over, as Portland ultimately finished with 18 turnovers on the night, compared to the Cavs eight.

On the stat sheet, it says Portland shot 50.6% on the night, which indicates a poor defensive showing from the Cavs on the night. Although, when you take into account that the Blazers 59.0% in the first half, it displays how the Cavaliers were able to turn around the defense in the second half and that was the key to the win.

As good as the defense was in the second half turnaround, the offense took just a big of an upward swing.

In the first half, Cleveland looked like a team who had never played offense with each other. They weren’t moving the ball and were missing extremely easy looks at the rim. Cleveland did shoot 48.7% from the field in the first half but it didn’t feel that way, as their 17 point first quarter was their lowest scoring first quarter of the season.

In the second half though, the Cavaliers ball movement improved, they weren’t playing as tight, as the Cavs were letting the game and shots come to them and not force the issue and as a result, those easy looks that weren’t falling in the first half were going in during the second half.

Cleveland’s offense has been slumping during the losing streak but they were no signs on that in the second half and if the Cavs went to get another winning streak going, more of these types of offensive performances will be needed.

LeBron Leads Again

The Cavs were in major trouble near the end of the second quarter, as the Blazers held an 18-point advantage with just 4:41 remaining before half time. That Cavaliers needed a spark to give them some much needed momentum heading into the break and guess who provided that spark?

Yep, LeBron.

James scored or assisted on four of the five made baskets during the Cavs mini surge to cut Portland’s big lead in half heading into half time. It gave Cleveland some much needed momentum and belief heading into the locker room and Coach David Blatt spoke of the importance of the late surge led by James, per Chris Fedor of cleveland.com:

"“It was very important, I felt. We’ll look at the second half and we’ll say, yeah, what a great second half we played — 58-44 — and defending on every possession and doing the right things on offense, taking care of the ball, getting good shots, Bron making big plays for himself and others and other guys making big plays — Kevin doing a great job, as he did at the five tonight for good parts of the game. But really I felt that what really kind of gave us a chance to win that game was the fact that at the end of the second quarter we locked in. We made a minor run. We got ourselves into the game and gave ourselves a little hope. And I really thought that was critical.”"

James continued his stellar game in the fourth quarter, when, like he has so often this season, he simply took over. LeBron’s 14 points came during the games final period and this was the eighth time this season he has scored in double-digits in the fourth quarter. James averaged 8.9 points per game in the final quarter, more then anyone in the entire league.

LeBron has often talked about the last quarter being ‘winning time’ and the importance of it. Well, James has backed up his words this season, as he has taken over games time after time for Cleveland and led them to victory. One can only imagine the nightmare opposing teams will have when Kyrie Irving gets back, one of the NBA’s most clutch performers.

Love Regains Rhythm

Love has struggled from the three-point arc over his last four games, as he is 0 from 13 from the beyond the arc after starting the season smoking hot from range. He was probably the Cav who struggled most during the three-game losing streak, averaging only 9.3 points a game on 27.7% shooting from the field- a far cry from his per game numbers of 18.2 points a game on 43.7% shooting.

Against the Blazers though, Love ditched his three-point shot, as he attempted only one of them in the game (and he missed). Love constantly attacked the basket and was aggressive in the post, leading to his shooting 10 free throws during the game, hitting eight of them.

Now, this can be taken both as a positive and a negative.

Let’s start with the positive. Love knows he has been struggling from the outside over the past four games. It is evident by the numbers and his frustration after each shot clanked the iron was becoming visual on the court. So, what did Love do? He mixed it up and decided to get back into a rhythm by getting to the line, where he shoots 84.9%. Also, Love deciding to go into the post more often and being one of the games best post players, it makes sense. Love has been known as a player who can easily get down on himself, so to see him adjust his game plan when a major element of it isn’t working is definitely a positive.

Although, that being said, Love is Cleveland’s stretch four. He helps space out the defense and allows driving lanes for players such as James and Irving, when he returns. Also, Love is one of the best three-point shooting big man in the entire league, so he is a much more dangerous player when his shot is falling compared to when it isn’t. The Cavs can’t afford Love to loss confidence in his three-point shot when it isn’t falling and they will need him to eventually start knocking them down again to become a more dangerous offensive machine, as if they aren’t dangerous enough already.

Cunningham and Delly Thrive

Heading into the season, put your hand up if you thought the backcourt duo of Jared Cunningham and Matthew Dellavedova would be leading the Cavs to victory during games in mid-December?

Put your hand down and stop lying.

The unlikely duo were two of Cleveland’s unsung heroes against the Blazers, as Dellavedova’s 17 points helped spark the Cavs offense, while providing his usual pesky defense. Cunningham’s box score doesn’t jump out, as he scored only seven points but his energy and effort on the defensive end was too much for Blatt to leave him out of the game, as he played a career-high 34 minutes.

Love praised Cunningham’s performance after the game, per Fedor of cleveland.com:

"“Jared was awesome tonight. Played 34 minutes and he did a lot of great things, things that didn’t show up in the stat sheet. We have a lot of guys on the team that do that.”"

You cannot argue that Cunningham wasn’t awesome during the Cavs win. He has flying all over the place on defense, his athleticism to help contain Lillard and McCollum and despite their big nights, they had to work a lot harder to score when being guarded by Cunningham in the second half. Many thought Cunningham wouldn’t see the court at all once the regular season began but his developed a repetition on the Cleveland roster as a hard working defender with high energy and those traits will always get you minutes in this league.

Dellavedova’s defense and energy never need to be questioned; as everyone knows the Australian will provide both in bunches throughout the game. Although, his offensive production is becoming a pleasant surprise for the Cavs. Dellavedova is starting to hit his three point shot with supreme consistence, as he is shooting the three-ball at am amazing 44.1% clip. Dellavedova isn’t hesitant in his shot anymore and he seems a lot more confident letting it fly from beyond the arc, adding yet another weapon to the Cavs offense machine.

Where Is Mozgov?

Timofey Mozgov’s struggles have been documented multiple times this season but he may have hit rock bottom against the Blazers.

Mozgov played only seven minutes on Tuesday Night, including none in the second half. He posted donuts all across the stat line, expect for one category- he was a -12 in the plus/minus area, a stat that Blatt has publically stated he puts a lot of value into.

More from King James Gospel

Blatt said that the benching of Mozgov was for match-up purposes during the game and that is definitely a valid point, as the Cavs small-ball line-up won them game. Although, Mozgov playing minimal minutes is becoming a theme. He is averaging only 18.9 minutes per game this season and has looked like a shell of himself.

He helped turn around the Cavs defense last season but has been a negative on that end of the floor this season. His offense has been a disaster, as he is struggling catching balls and finishing at the rim. He is averaging only 4.1 rebounds a game, an alarming number for your 7-feet starting center.

Mozgov insists his knee isn’t bothering him anymore- maybe he is lying, maybe he isn’t. Whatever the problem is, Mozgov is extremely low on confidence at the moment and is playing like someone who’s never played the game before. The Cavs are simply a much better team with Mozgov off the court at the moment and it is going to be tough for Blatt to find him minutes the way he is currently playing.