Cleveland Cavaliers: Lessons from the Cavs first loss since the trade deadline
The Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t get their shots to fall as the Washington Wizards pulled out a 107-103 win.
The Cavs shot 50.0% from the field, but that doesn’t matter when the three ball isn’t falling. The Cleveland Cavaliers finished the night just 8-of-35 (22.9%) from deep.
LeBron James puts tonight's loss and the addition of four new players into perspective "It's not going to be overnight...we have a lot of things to work on." #AllForOne pic.twitter.com/IKrS3S9bSM
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) February 23, 2018
LeBron James was fantastic again in the loss. He scored the Cavs final 14 points and finished with 32 points on 72.2% shooting. James also contributed nine boards, eight assists, and two steals.
The Cavs didn’t get much scoring outside of James. Tristan Thompson and JR Smith were the only other Cavaliers to reach double-digit scoring with 12 and 15 points respectively.
Here’s what we learned from the loss.
Lesson No. 1: JR Smith is Mr. First Quarter.
Smith continues to come out firing in the first quarter. He started the opening frame with nine points on four of seven shooting. He is now shooting 21-of-25 (84.0%) in the last six first quarters.
J.R. SMITH
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) February 23, 2018
GREEN LIGHT! 🚦 pic.twitter.com/QrVrlQJVge
Smith isn’t the key to the offense, but him shooting like this goes a long way considering the Cavs are without a legitimate secondary scoring option with Kevin Love sidelined. It’s no surprise that the Cavs’ best quarter of the night was when Smith was playing his best. As a team, they finished the first quarter shooting 60.9% from the floor while posting a 124.6 offensive rating.