Cavaliers Offense Showing Progress, Not Perfection After Early Struggles
DENVER — It's only one game.
In fact, it's only one game against the hapless Denver Nuggets, a struggling but deep team that entered its Friday night contest with the Cleveland Cavaliers ranked No. 20 in defensive rating, allowing 106.9 points per 100 possessions.
But during the 110-101 triumph, a game that only had a single-digit margin of victory after a furious fourth-quarter rally by the Nuggets in a sold-out Pepsi Center, the Cavaliers offense showed not just signs of life but indications of dominance.
More so than during any of its first four games, Cleveland made it clear that David Blatt's movement-heavy schemes had the potential to confuse and overwhelm opponents on a nightly basis.
Leading into the outing, the biggest storyline seemed to center around ball movement, or lack thereof. The Cavs were coming off a disappointing loss to the Utah Jazz, one in which their passing bottomed out as they only managed to generate six assists as a team. Kyrie Irving was at the epicenter of the criticism, thanks to scoring 34 points and recording a goose egg in the assist column.
Speaking of assists, the Cavs "rank last in points created by assists," according to Devin Kharpertian of TheBrooklynGame.com:
"Not as of yet, no," Blatt said before the game when he was asked if his offense was running in the manner he desires.
His answer might be different now.
Against the Nuggets, the ball moved crisply. Cleveland swung the rock from side to side, probing the defense and then showcasing some brilliant passes from all areas of the half-court sets. Some of James' skip passes in particular led to audible gasps, and deservedly so.
The Cavaliers managed to isolate Kevin Love against mismatches, draw an extra defender and hit the open man—whether it took one or two passes to get the ball there. The end result was a stellar 25 dimes on 40 made shots from the field.
"In Utah, the first half was definitely not the style of basketball we want to play," LeBron James explained after the game drew to a conclusion.
"I think from the third quarter on, six quarters straight, we've played basketball the way we want to play. We want to get the ball moving, we want them to feel like we're in a rhythm, both offensively and defensively. It [the Utah game] didn't start off too well, but it ended on the up."
It's hard to disagree with the four-time MVP's assessment of his team's performance. The highlight dunks the Cavs produced were nice, but it was more impressive to see Blatt's offense come to life. There were enough excellently run sets to mitigate the negative feelings surrounding a 1-3 start and breathe some terror into opponents who are coming up on the schedule.
"We stressed it [ball and player movement] today at shootaround. It was a concerted effort coming off a six-assist performance in Utah, so we just stressed it from the beginning," James, who was feeling far more cordial than he was at an intense media appearance at the team's pregame shootaround, espoused. It's funny what a performance that shows off everything you worked on can do to a mindset.
"Let's get the ball moving from side to side and get the best shot. Not a good shot. The best shot. And whoever's the recipient of a good pass at the end, hopefully he can knock it down. We put guys in position to make shots, and it resulted in us having 25 assists on 40 field goals. That's a pretty good ratio."
As a frightening note for upcoming opponents, the Cavaliers could have racked up far more offensive production, which James touched on after his team's second victory of a season that's very much still in its infancy.
"You've got to make shots first of all to have assists. I think when the ball is moving, it's just the karma of the game—guys make shots. And even some of the shots that we didn't make.
"Mike Miller had three threes that he didn't make, and the ball was just hopping and popping around. It's just the good karma of the game. You move the ball around early, you get guys feeling the ball, touching the ball, and everyone feels comfortable, and it results in having seven guys in double figures."
Cleveland may have boasted the services of seven double-digit scorers—all five starters, plus Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson off the bench—but James and Love both struggled to knock down some of their open looks.
The former's jumper looked flat at times, leading to a 1-of-5 outing from beyond the arc and an 8-of-18 performance from the field, largely boosted by a dominant fourth-quarter run. The latter connected on just six of his 16 attempts, misfiring on all five of his deep looks.
The offense most assuredly showed signs of life, but they were still only signs. The consistency wasn't quite there yet, as the star players—and Waiters—sometimes allowed the offense to devolve into ball-stopping isolation sets.
"We got stagnant a few times, including myself," James admitted. "I played a little one-on-one basketball, and I don't want to get too happy with that. We want to still move the ball."
Blatt, speaking to the assembled reporters after his team's victorious performance, shared those sentiments.
"No. 1, we're going to get better as we begin to use our offense more properly and as we begin to recognize the benefit of not holding the ball and not playing simply for isolations and for specific situations. There's a time for equal-opportunity offense, and there's a time for target-player offense, and I thought overall we did a pretty good job managing those talents today."
While James was his typical dominant—though not quite MVP—self, recording a strong double-double with 22 points, seven boards and 11 dimes, it was Irving who showed the most improvement when it came to using the offense properly. But it wasn't him making too many changes to his game.
Instead, he spent his 39 minutes on the floor taking what the defense gave him.
"I was just letting the game come to me," the young point guard said. "If I saw a shot, I was going to shoot it. But most importantly, we had a great shootaround today. We were well-prepared—not that we weren't in the past."
Irving was one of many players who bought into the system Friday night at the end of a difficult road trip. He was a willing distributor and a confident scorer, while LeBron was perfectly comfortable serving as a de facto point guard in Matthew Dellavedova's injury-related absence (MCL sprain).
Perhaps most importantly, Waiters accepted—and thrived in—his role as a bench player, though Blatt refused to acknowledge him as such, instead referring to him as a "second starter."
Doing what's in the best interest of the team was a key theme in the locker room, a sentiment echoed by James, Waiters and Irving. In fact, the starting floor general continues to claim that this is the closest team he's been on, and it's starting to show.
Nonetheless, it can get better.
Just imagine when the Big Three start clicking and James puts together the performance we all know he's capable of throughout an entire game, not just one half. Think about when role players are hitting even more of their open looks and the defense remains focused throughout all 48 minutes. Ponder the results of increased comfort in Blatt's complicated offense.
As crisp as the ball movement looked at times, there was still that occasional stagnation. James didn't operate out of the pinch post as much as he should, and players driving to the basket didn't always keep their heads up to look for open shooters on the perimeter. Plus, Blatt has yet to unveil a James-Love pick-and-pop set that's sure to give opponents fits.
"I hope so. I believe so," Irving said after he was asked if this was the type of excellent and ideal performance his team could produce. "I believe we can play even better games."
After an outing that showcased just how threatening this Cleveland offense can be for prolonged stretches, one that should quell the critics who were chomping at the bit after the team's 1-3 start, that's probably not what the rest of the league would like to hear. It's only one game, but sometimes that's all it takes to change a narrative and kick off a stream of steady improvement.
Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com. All quotes were obtained firsthand.
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