The Cleveland Cavaliers won a game last night that we are not sure they would have in December, 102 – 93. They fell apart late in the second and early in the third, yet they won. The Cavs got poor shooting performances from LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, yet they won. The Cavs were down 14 and seemed to have no life, yet they won. At time LeBron seemed frustrated with his teammates effort and rotations, yet they won. The referees made bad calls (mostly against the Cavs) all night, and yet they won. You get the point.
What is interesting is that the Cavs won on the defensive side of the ball. The Cavs held the Pistons to 31 points, on 31% shooting from the field, in the second half. For those of you who just did the quick math, the Cavs gave up 62 points in the 1st half and exactly half of that many in the 2nd half. The Pistons actually scored 35 points in the 2nd quarter alone, 4 more points than they scored in the 3rd and 4th quarter combined last night.
That style of win led LeBron James to declare the Cavs can win with any style of play, according to Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report:
"“At this point, with our roster, we can play whatever the game presents itself,” James said. “We want to play uptempo, because we have the athletes, we have the speed. We don’t face a half-court defense every night, but if the game gets to a possession game, which it will get to, especially in April, I think we’re capable of executing and making plays happen.”"
We think LeBron is right. While David Blatt has been honing in on his general game to game rotations, in the playoffs and in late game situations he has options. LeBron mentioned that they can play uptempo but they can also run out an all defensive, all shooters and all big teams that would be excellent against certain match-ups or certain points of the game. Here is what those “teams” could look like:
Athlete – Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, LeBron James and Tristan Thompson
Defense – Matthew Dellavedova, Shumpert, James, Thompson and Timofey Mozgov
Shooter – Irving, Smith, Mike Miller/James Jones/Shumpert (whoever is hot), James and Kevin Love
Big – Smith, Shawn Marion (when he returns from injury), James, Mozgov and Kendrick Perkins
Those specialist teams would create havoc for any Cavs opponents. The Big team would be interesting for the Cavs against the Bulls. Mozgov has enough agility to stay with either Joakim Noah or Pau Gasol while Perkins can bang away down low with the other. If the Cavs meet up with the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals, or the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, the Defense team could be deployed or the Shooter team might be needed to keep up.
That doesn’t even include the Cavs normal starting 5 of Irving, Smith, James, Love and Mozgov. That is a group that has two high level defenders, LeBron and Timo, a good defender and shooter in J.R., and offensive weapons (with improving defensive efforts) in Irving and Love. A well balanced team.
More from King James Gospel
- 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
- The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
- 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
- 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
- This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead
LeBron is right, the Cavs can play any style and still win. Last night they won the game with defense and a lot of Love (8 three pointers). Other nights they will just run the opponent off the floor with their athletes and shooters. The Bulls, now without Derrick Rose, will be a test of their interior strength (one of the reasons we are glad Perk is around).
The Cavs get a strong test Thursday night when they face off against the Warriors. We will see if they rely on their defense to try to hold down the Warriors offense or if they try to run and gun with Golden State. We know we will be watching closely.
Do you agree with LeBron that the Cavs can win with any style?