Perspective is way of life and if you are a Cleveland Cavaliers fan you probably are holding onto two different perspectives after the Cavs lost to the New York Knicks in Game 1 of their first-round series. The teams are well matched up and it will only take a tweak here and there for one of these teams to grab the advantage.
Either, you believe the sky is falling and this series is over after the Cavs lost the home-court advantage or you are saying to yourself that it’s only Game 1 and you expect this battle to go the full seven games. You could have an in-between view where you aren’t jumping to either extreme. Whatever you believe, from a Cavaliers team perspective, there are some major areas that they still need to fix and fix fast.
The problem for Cleveland is that these problems have been problems throughout the regular season as well when they played the Knicks. Let’s look at these three areas and discuss some ways to correct the issues.
No. 1 area for Cavs to correct against Knicks in Game 2: Rebound the basketball
It wasn’t that the Cavs players weren’t out there trying in Game 1. They were putting forth the effort, but the focus on detail, like in trying to box out for the defensive rebound, wasn’t always there. Too often players like Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen were flat-footed and allowing New York players all night to get inside of them and steal away boards that should have been there’s.
Getting outrebounded 51-38 and 17-11 on offensive boards isn’t going to win any team many games. When the Cavaliers played the Knicks best this season, the rebounding numbers were very close. Knowing this fact, the Cavs players need to spend more time focusing on the details to get the boards. Timing and better footwork could help in this department.
No. 2 area for Cavs to correct against Knicks in Game 2: Getting better production from the bench
There have been far too many fans and sports media outlets in Cleveland complaining about the lack of production by the Cavs’ bench players. While most of you are looking at the points scored, you are missing the bigger issue with the bench production which stems from the team’s coach J.B. Bickerstaff not playing his bench players to begin with.
In order for your bench to produce points, you need them to see the court, and this Cleveland bench of players has seen very little of the floor either in Game 1 or for much of the season consistently. The Knicks had a 90 minutes to 48 minutes advantage there of actual playing time on the Cavs in Game 1. Bench players can’t do much when they are only given seven minutes of playing time in a game.
At this point, some of you will argue the reason Bickerstaff isn’t playing these guys is that they aren’t playing well and thus the few minutes but that’s a terrible argument. It doesn’t hold water because we are talking about professional basketball players. These players have been shooting hoops before they were out of diapers. These players on the bench are tremendous basketball hoopers.
This leads us to our third area of concern for the Cavs going into Game 2.
No. 3 area for Cavs to correct against Knicks in Game 2: Coaching has to be better
Coaching can be learned but it also has a lot to do with instincts and anticipation along with experience. While J.B. Bickerstaff has gotten to this level of NBA coaching for numerous reasons, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the best at what he does. There’s been a lot of praise for the Cleveland head coach recently and it has been well-earned, but that still doesn’t excuse the coach’s weaknesses.
One of those weaknesses is his inability to understand what combinations of players to play on the court at any one time. Obviously, the Cavs have a solid starting core of players. However, he’s been running them into the ground too often this season and has been reluctant to play his bench. That has more to do with the fact that the head coach doesn’t have faith in his bench.
And before you once again say that the coach is correct in not playing them because they stink, please remind yourself that a player can’t show his worth if the coach shows no confidence in them.
Beyond the concern of how Bickerstaff is playing his team, he also doesn’t seem to have a good grip on timing and calling good timeouts and adjusting to the opponent’s strengths in general. In Game 1, Bickerstaff called too many timeouts in the first half. He didn’t leave himself extra timeouts at the end of the game when they needed them most.
He also didn’t make many adjustments in terms of play calls or how to defend the Knicks’ best players. Watching Cedi Osman, one of the worst Cavs defenders, guard the Knicks’ best player Jalen Brunson down the stretch was frightening.
Hopefully, these areas can be addressed and corrected by Bickerstaff as they go into Game 2. If they aren’t corrected fast, then this Cavs season could be coming to a close.