Cleveland Cavaliers: What we learned vs. San Antonio Spurs

Larry Nance Jr. and LeBron need to share the floor more.

After playing 19 minutes together and putting up a net rating of 52.9 Friday night against Memphis, head coach Tyronn Lue decided to play James and Nance together for just eight minutes.

Lue chose to close the game with a lineup of Clarkson, Hood, Korver, James and Green in crunch-time even though the Spurs decided to keep their bigs in the game.

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One of the benefits of going small, as the Cavs did, is that you force the other team’s bigs to guard on the perimeter forcing them out of the paint. However, the Spurs’ bigs never left the paint because they didn’t fear Green’s shot.

Nance seemed to be the option in this scenario. Nance played only 14 minutes despite being the only Cavalier with a positive net rating.

Besides that, the Cavs have been a dominant team when LeBron and Nance share the floor together. The Cavs have had an offensive rating of 115.5, a defensive rating of 91.8 and a net rating of 23.7. Sunday wasn’t much different as the Cavs finished with an offensive rating of 121.5 and a net rating of 19.5 in the eight minutes they shared the floor.

LeBron has had a history of playing great when paired with athletic players. Nance may be the most athletic player he’s ever played with and the Cavs have dominated when both players share the floor.

It’s crazy that these two were only on the floor for eight minutes together. It’s even worse that Lue decided to close the game with Nance on the bench.