The Spin: Cavs Can’t Keep Up With Heat; Don’t Be Too Hard on Loss
Spencer Davies discusses five takeaways from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 129-96 loss to the Miami Heat.
Please don’t be a box score watcher in this one. A 12-point loss to the Sacramento Kings in which nobody even tried was more concerning than a game in which the Cavs were completely exhausted, tired, and outrun after a long night less than 24 hours earlier.
A 30-point loss is usually depressing. Don’t get me wrong: the Cavs did not play a good game by any means. But, in order to draw the line between reality and justification, you must first consider the difficulty of a back-to-back road trip. With overtime, that’s a lot of time on players’ legs to work on.
“I think that definitely played a role,” Evan Mobley, who finished with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double, said. “We got in late last night because of the overtime game, so we had extra minutes on our body.” But that is not an excuse. We must come out here and perform our duties.”
“Mentally, emotionally, and physically, we just couldn’t find it tonight,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said cheerfully. “I played a great game last night, obviously put in a lot of effort and spent a lot of energy.” We made an attempt. We simply couldn’t locate it tonight.
Surprisingly, the Cavs didn’t have a bad offensive process. They shot the ball well and had success in possessions where they kept it clean. Defensively, the team just couldn’t get out to shooters, especially early in the game.
“[The Heat] did a good job of getting out and attacking in transition, making the right play and then junking up the game by forcing turnovers and we kind of fell into that trap,” said Georges Niang, the Heat’s point guard. “It had been a long night.” These things happen. Try to keep them to a minimum, but I believe we will continue to improve.”
Aside from Kyle Lowry’s nuclear performance, the Heat bench impressed.
Orlando Robinson was moving would-be rebounders in the paint with his lower body. He only had the rebounds on the stat sheet, but his box-out ability was on full display.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. was also moving bodies and scoring with ease. It’ll be a long 48 minutes if you don’t have the energy to match that.
Overall, the Heat took 11 more shots than the Cavs, indicating how much more energy they possessed than the wine-and-gold.
“We didn’t really get too many stops throughout the game,” Mobley said in a statement. “We’re kind of going slow with our pace.” We didn’t get where we wanted to go. We just needed to find some energy and a spark, which we didn’t find tonight… When we get tired, we have to dig deep. That is not an excuse. Go rest for a few days, enjoy Thanksgiving, and then get back to work.”
“We were attempting. “We just couldn’t keep up tonight,” added Bickerstaff. “We don’t make excuses, but this is the basketball reality in which we live.” Coming off an overtime game like we did last night, this was going to be a tough one. The emotional aspect of it was as important as the number of minutes the guys played. I thought the guys came in with the right attitude and tried hard, but we couldn’t find it tonight.”
Niang agrees, though he appears to take it a little harder.
“I wouldn’t say you sense anything bad happening. “I always want to fight and bounce back,” Niang said. “We were down however many guys, but that shouldn’t stop us from playing hard the entire game.” You have to go out there and fight. The league throws challenges at you. You have to go out there and be prepared for all of them.”
“After a few minutes, I feel like with some of the guys, you could just tell,” he said. “I’m a step behind. That is when you must dig deep and fight through the exhaustion. But we never made it to that point.”
With how much the Cavs have relied on him, Craig Porter Jr. has been the story of the week. On Wednesday, he received his first NBA start. It didn’t start well, with a turnover and a missed shot.
“I feel like I started off kinda slow,” Porter admitted. “I feel like I was doing a lot of thinking more than just playing like I had been doing, made some costly turnovers and they got out to an early lead.”
But, as he has demonstrated, slow starts do not bother him. He responded with a strong second quarter that put him in the teeth of the Heat defense. He made plays for others and recovered well.
“We picked it back up a little bit in the second half, but they weren’t missing shots,” Porter told reporters. “After the first start, I feel like I did not too bad, but definitely can improve a lot.”
Bickerstaff was there to support his rookie guard, who finished with 16 points, five assists, two rebounds, and two blocks.
“Craig has been really, really good for us overall,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re asking him to do something extremely difficult. Being a rookie, playing as many minutes as he did last night in the type of game he did last night. Then, on the second game of a back-to-back, put him in the starting lineup. That is extremely difficult to accomplish. He’s another who gave it his all. He’s not the type to turn the ball over. So I believe it took its toll on him tonight.
“However, Craig has been a pleasant surprise for us. Competitive, understands his game and how to get to his spots. It just does a lot of different things. He gets rebounds and blocks shots. Craig is going to be a good player in this league, and we’re excited to have him.”
“We’ll throw this one out,” Bickerstaff said. “We’ve been playing some excellent basketball.” We’ll celebrate Thanksgiving, return to work on Friday, and prepare for Saturday.”
“In this league, you’ve got to have amnesia.” “It’s just one game,” Niang explained. “We can’t let it happen again.” We must learn from it. We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Another set of back-to-backs. Surprising. That seems to be in our DNA this year, and we have to be ready to battle whoever we have out there.”
“We’re not harping on it or anything,” Mobley says. Simply discard this one and move on to the next. Continue from there.”
Caris LeVert returned to the court quickly after missing two games due to a sore left knee. He applied rim pressure, got to his spots, and made things happen for himself and his teammates. While under the basket, he has some of the filthiest right-hand shovel passes in the NBA. In 18 minutes, LeVert had 12 points, three assists, two rebounds, and a steal.
He didn’t last long on Wednesday, and it wasn’t just because of his minutes limit. After feeling he was fouled on another Cavalier turnover in the third quarter, LeVert made his case to the officials loudly.
