Cavs vs. Spurs: 6 Things We Learned

The Cleveland Cavaliers took care of the San Antonio Spurs last night. In case you missed it, here are 6 things we learned from Cavs Vs Spurs:

Speed kills?

The speed that the Cavaliers are playing at is almost the perfect antidote for the league-leading Spurs defense. So, in this case, speed is a Spurs killer!

The Cleveland Cavaliers destroyed the San Antonio Spurs by a 117-103 score. And for the second straight game the Cavs “Big 3” produced at least 20+ points each. It seems that new head coach Tyronn Lue has the trio clicking on all cylinders.

The Cavaliers played exceptional defense for much of the game, but their shooting is what killed the Spurs, ending with a 54.9% shooting percentage vs. a 49.4% shooting clip for the Spurs.

The six things we learned:

1.) When the “Big 3” are shooting north of 50% they are almost impossible to beat! LeBron James went 10/17 (58.8%), Kevin Love had another double-double going 8/13 (61.5%) added 11 rebounds and Kyrie Irving exploded in the 4th quarter and ended up shooting 9/17 (53%).

2.) When the Cavs as a team shoot north of 85% from the charity stripe they are hard to beat as well. LeBron James went 9/11 (82%), Kevin Love was 2/2 (100%), Kyrie Irving was 3/4 (75%) and perhaps the most impressive was Tristan Thompson going 4/4 (100%).

3.) When the Cavaliers play tight defense all game long, they get more transition opportunities and it opens up their offense to many fast-break points. LeBron James can STILL do the chase-down block from behind (we thought he was too old?). Irving and James each had 2 steals and James added 2 blocks, while Love and Thompson each had a block. There is no doubt that when this team gets used to playing 48 minutes of tough defense, they will be difficult to beat. What is required to get used to that is not taking any quarters or games off when they are playing a sub-par team. If they play lights-out defense ALL THE TIME, they will be back in the NBA Finals.

4.) Tyronn Lue has been playing Kevin Love with the second team as well, adding to his touches at the elbow and in the post. When Love plays inside-out, it makes opposing teams respect his inside game, thus adding another facilitator that can either take his own shot from mid-range or near the rim plus give him the ability to kick out the ball to open 3-point shooters.

5.) When the “Big 3” are clicking like the last two nights, it opens up each to have monstrous quarters. Kevin Love had 14 points in the 1st quarter, LeBron James sensed the team needed a lift in the 3rd quarter and went off for 17, and Kyrie Irving (affectionately dubbed as Mr. 4th quarter), went off for 11 to help facilitate a strong 4th quarter.

More from King James Gospel

6.) The Cavaliers seem to be playing well with an up-tempo style of play and it seems as if they are getting used to running more. What coach Lue has done by adding the up-tempo style to the Cavaliers repertoire is it has given them another way to win. They can play small, big, isolation and now up-tempo. Thus, they started the game playing up-tempo, but when the Spurs went into a “zone” defense later in the game, the Cavaliers countered with more of an isolation-style led by James and Irving.

The Cavaliers have re-gained their mojo and seem to play better together than they have at any time since the “Big 3” came to Cleveland. The question still remains…

Can the new-look Cavaliers take down the monster from the West, the Golden State Warriors?