Friday NBA Roundup: Is Cavaliers' Coasting Cause for Concern?
To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, what a difference a year makes.
In a vacuum, the Cleveland Cavaliers' 111-104 loss to the Chicago Bulls looks bad. That it extends the team's losing streak to three games only worsens the optics for LeBron James and Co.
But as The Athletic's Sean Highkin noted, the context surrounding Cleveland's recent struggles can't—and shouldn't—be ignored:
To be sure, the nitty-gritty of the Cavaliers' latest trip to the United Center wasn't pretty. Cleveland looked lethargic and lackadaisical throughout, getting beasted on the boards (49-33 overall, 16-6 on the offensive end) and giving up a ton of extra looks as a result. The Bulls finished with 13 more field-goal tries, seven more free-throw attempts, 20 more second-chance points and 18 more paint points than their Central Division rivals.
If not for Cleveland's customary long-range barrage (10-of-26 on three-pointers), the team might've finished its Friday night with a third straight blowout.
Then again, if the Cavs hadn't turned the ball over 20 times and surrendered 18 points off those giveaways, they might've flown a W of their own.
Despite the sloppiness, the Cavaliers shot 54.2 percent from the field and racked up 30 assists—21 between James and Kyrie Irving—on 45 makes. Those two each scored 20 points or more, though Irving saw his total tamped down by a rare Nikola Mirotic swat.
The bigger issue for the defending champs is the same one with which they've struggled so far this season: defense.
James, for one, began his team's quick trip to the Windy City on his heels. To pay off a lost World Series bet to his old pal Dwyane Wade, northeast Ohio's proudest son showed up to the game in full Chicago Cubs regalia. To make matters more embarrassing, he had to suffer his fate all over Wade's Snapchat.
Taj Gibson did his part to keep the Cavaliers down once the game began. The veteran big man hit his first nine shots en route to a 23-point, 11-rebound, five-assist evening. Jimmy Butler and Wade combined for 50 points with just one three between them: a step-back snipe by Wade over James that gave Chicago the first of its three treys.
Then that duo did its damage predominantly on the interior, per usual. Butler bullied his way to 10 freebies on 12 trips, while Wade toyed with his former Miami Heat and USA Basketball teammate.
With Rajon Rondo registering his first triple-double as a Bull (15 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists), Chicago became the fourth team in five games to torch Cleveland for at least 108 points. All told, the Cavs have slipped to 20th in defensive efficiency and 24th in defensive rebound percentage.
Those are troubling numbers but not unusual ones for a team coming off a banner year.
Last season's 73-win Golden State Warriors—the same ones Cleveland upended during the 2016 NBA Finals—might've been the exception to the old rule about championship hangovers. Typically, teams coming off such triumphs suffer some sort of slippage, particularly in terms of night-to-night effort and focus. Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, among other franchises, can attest to as much.
Unlike those champions, though, Cleveland's slippage has been tracked statistically for all to see. The Cavs rank toward the bottom of the league in a handful of the NBA's hustle stats.
| Deflections | 11.6 | 30th |
| Loose Balls Recovered | 3.5 | 26th |
| Charges Drawn | 0.33 | 25th |
| Contested Shots | 58.6 | 26th |
If these issues persist into March and April, Tyronn Lue's team could have plenty more to worry about during May and June. The Toronto Raptors, who took two games from Cleveland in the conference finals, won't fear the Cavaliers. Neither will the Bulls, whose 11-7 record is good for third in the Eastern standings.
And that's before Cleveland can pencil itself in for a three-peat with the Kevin Durant-infused Dubs or the Los Angeles Clippers, who smoked the Cavs at Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday.
But December has barely begun; The campaign's halfway mark is six weeks away. It's too early for any team to jam on the panic button, especially with a conference-best 13-5 record.
And especially with the benefit of the doubt that accompanies the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Brow Beaten By Blake, Clippers
Anthony Davis had his fair share of shining moments against the Clippers on Friday. He fit in some dunks, got to the free-throw line six times, swatted a shot and showed off his slick passing skills with a behind-the-back bounce pass to E'Twaun Moore on the break in the second quarter.
But the Brow suffered his usual share of bumps and bruises beyond the final score of a 114-96 New Orleans Pelicans loss to the Clippers. Davis hurt his shoulder during a collision with Marreese Speights late in the first quarter and had to sit out an eight-minute stretch of game time as a result.
The league's leading scorer still managed to log 21 points in 32 minutes, but he couldn't quite counteract the opposing at power forward. Blake Griffin finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in yet another excellent all-around effort for L.A.'s frontcourt All-Star.
Together, the Clippers managed to shoot 51.1 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from three despite Doc Rivers giving J.J. Redick the night off. The win was L.A.'s second consecutive to end a six-game road trip marred in the middle by a three-game skid.
The Pelicans, on the other hand, limped out of their own building with a third double-digit loss during their last four games.
"I just didn't think they felt us at all or felt like we were there," head coach Alvin Gentry said, per the New Orleans Advocate's Scott Kushner. "They felt like they were running freely."
If New Orleans (7-13) is going to creep into the postseason hunt out West, it'll need to start racking up wins again soon, beginning with a difficult double in Oklahoma City on Sunday and at home against Memphis on Monday.
Whatever bumps and bruises Davis accrued against Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, he'll have to brush those off quickly, lest he and his team suffer similar fates against the Thunder's Steven Adams and Enes Kanter, and the Grizzlies' Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.
O'Quinn Steals the Show at MSG
Dec. 2 was billed as a return of sorts for Friday Night Fights to Madison Square Garden. Two days after fending off the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis—despite Karl-Anthony Towns' career-high 47 points (and 18 rebounds)—the New York Knicks welcomed the Twin Cities' hoops team to the Big Apple for a rematch.
The end result was largely the same: a 118-114 win for the Knicks. But rather than watching another brilliant brawl between Towns and Kristaps Porzingis, fans were treated to a surprising turn in the spotlight for Kyle O'Quinn.
Starting for the fourth time in place of the injured Joakim Noah, O'Quinn came through with season highs in points (20) and rebounds (13)—as many of the former as Towns totaled and as many of the latter as the two young bigs combined.
"The biggest thing is you want to win, you don't want to have a great game and lose," O'Quinn said, per the New York Post's Marc Berman.
O'Quinn and Porzingis combined to block Towns twice on one late possession to crush another comeback from the feisty Timberwolves.
The 26-year-old Flushing native will need more than one big game to keep Noah from reclaiming his starting spot when healthy. But he already has support in both the standings (the Knicks are 4-0 with him in Noah's place) and the stands, from where O'Quinn heard chants of his name as the game came to a close.
Drummond Dominates Dwight In Atlanta
In the aggregate, Dwight Howard has been productive for the Atlanta Hawks this season. He came into Friday averaging 17.9 points, 15.9 rebounds and 3.3 combined steals and blocks per 36 minutes. His presence in the middle has helped the Hawks jump from one of the league's worst rebounding teams to one of its best.
But the soon-to-be 31-year-old has looked his age (and then some) when matched up against some of the NBA's better, younger bigs.
Add Andre Drummond to a list of Howard's harsher mirrors that includes Anthony Davis, Hassan Whiteside and Rudy Gobert. The Detroit Pistons' All-Star center racked up 14 points and 14 rebounds—his 13th double-double of the 2016-17 season—while his opposite finished with two points and six boards in Mo-Town's 121-85 win over the Hawks in Atlanta.
Drummond was hardly the only Piston to puncture the Hawks' teetering defense. Detroit shot 53.9 percent from the field, including a franchise-record-tying 17 threes, with eight players scoring in double figures.
For the Pistons, the win closed out a four-game road trip with three straight successes against Eastern Conference foes. For the Hawks, it goes down as an eighth loss in nine outings—seven of which have seen Atlanta's opponent score 100 points or more.
And yet Atlanta still owns the NBA's second-stingiest defense. The Hawks can be a threat in the East, but only if Howard can handle himself better against his young tormentors on both ends.
Spurs Nip Wizards at the Wire
The San Antonio Spurs were within seconds of suffering their fifth home defeat of the season—after going without a loss at the AT&T Center until April last year.
This time, it was the woeful Washington Wizards who put a scare into the post-Tim Duncan Spurs. Bradley Beal hit his fifth three of the night in as many tries to put the visitors up 103-102 with 53 seconds left during the fourth quarter.
San Antonio's Danny Green answered with his first trey (in four tries) off an offensive rebound from LaMarcus Aldridge. John Wall tied the game with a driving layup before Kawhi Leonard nailed a 20-foot jumper to put the Spurs up two with six ticks on the game clock.
Otto Porter had a look at a tying shot of his own, but Aldridge came up with the carom to close out a 107-105 San Antonio win.
"We had the game won," Beal said, per CSN Mid-Atlantic's J. Michael Falgoust. "We just had to rebound the ball."
That's all that stood between the Spurs and another disappointing home defeat. Well, that and Pau Gasol's double-double, Aldridge's 19 points and Leonard's 23 points that put him on a scoring pace not seen in the Alamo City since Duncan's predecessor.
Weep not for San Antonio, though. This win, for all its foibles, stands as the Spurs' 11th in their last 12 games.
Process Watch, Dec. 2
Wins are still tough to come by for the Philadelphia 76ers. At this point, they have to take whatever silver linings they can find.
On Friday, they spotted at least a couple such bright spots amid a 105-88 home loss to the Orlando Magic. Naturally, both came courtesy of Joel Embiid.
The 22-year-old rookie put together arguably his most productive pro outing to date. He tallied a game-high 25 points on 10-of-21 shooting (3-of-5 from three) along with 10 rebounds and four assists in just 27 minutes.
More encouraging for the Sixers' big picture was how Embiid played alongside Jahlil Okafor. That combo, which has logged just 100 minutes together this season, helped Philly outscore Orlando by three points in 13 minutes at the Wells Fargo Center.
"I thought we had our moments," Embiid said, per CSN Philly's Jessica Camerato. "Obviously, we need to play more together and learn how to play with each other."
Those two will have plenty of opportunities to figure it all out. At 4-15, the Sixers can afford to let Embiid and Okafor fight through their growing pains together.
Rockets Roll on the Road
The Houston Rockets' hardwood smoke show has traveled well of late. A day after hanging 132 points on the Golden State Warriors in a double-overtime win, Houston racked up nearly as many in regulation en route to a 128-110 victory over the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center.
James Harden (20 points, seven assists, six rebounds) led seven Rockets in double figures, including a career-high 17 points from Sam Dekker.
Houston led by as many as 22 points, but as has been the team's M.O. this season, it didn't do so with defense. The Rockets relinquished 23 offensive rebounds to the bigger, younger Nuggets, who turned those into edges in paint points (60-54) and second-chance points (24-17).
But those woes haven't stopped Houston from racking up road wins of late—the team will head home with four wins on its five-game swing. Each of those victories saw the Rockets score at least 117 points.
Defense wins championships, but for Mike D'Antoni's team, nightly scoring bonanzas might be enough to eke out a top-four seed in the West.
Advanced statistics courtesy of NBA.com/Stats.
