Wednesday NBA Roundup: Flawed Cavaliers Struggling to Get Back on Track

Grant HughesJan 25, 2017

The Cleveland Cavaliers are doing their best to disrupt the sense of fatalism that has defined the 2016-17 season, registering their sixth loss in eight games and looking very little like a predetermined conference champ destined to meet the Golden State Warriors for an NBA Finals rubber match.

They fell to the Sacramento Kings 116-112 on Wednesday...and then they got trolled.

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If there are levels of NBA embarrassment, losing to the perpetually chaotic and underachieving Kings, at home, after LeBron James ripped into the roster, and then getting zinged...well, that's got to be somewhere toward the top.

Cleveland fell behind 10-0 at the outset, turning the ball over and looking generally snoozy—a bit of a surprise after James' scathing comments.

Because the Kings are the Kings (disorganized, erratic, 4-8 in January and owners of the fifth-worst defense in the league), the Cavs quickly worked their way back into the game with typical flashes of offensive brilliance.

But the contest went back and forth throughout until DeMarcus Cousins found Arron Afflalo on the wing for a decisive triple in overtime.

James was excellent, finishing with 24 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists on 8-of-15 shooting in 45 minutes. Kevin Love was nearly as potent, posting 21 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.

But James' assessment that his team was top-heavy held true, as no Cavs reserve posted a positive plus-minus.

Cleveland could have won this game easily if it had made more than 17 of its 34 free throws, but now's not the time to write off defeats to anomalous stats like that. The Cavs were too often sloppy, too often disconnected defensively and too often lacking in the urgency you'd expect from a team struggling through its roughest stretch of the year—particularly one that just got called out by its leader.

James is right to be frustrated with his team, but he's misdirecting his criticism. The Cavs don't need playmakers. Love has run offenses by himself in the past, and James and Irving are fine fulcrums. The Cavs had 29 assists on 40 makes Wednesday, and they average over 109.3 points per 100 possessions.

What they need is focus. What they need is a reliable defense. What they need is a reason to fear their status as shoo-in finalists may be in doubt.

And you know what? It's hard to find those things when the rest of the East has spent the last few weeks floundering around and failing to capitalize on the Cavs' skid. The Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics have each blown opportunities to close in on that top seed. Both have their own issues, and it's easy to understand the ongoing complacency in Cleveland.

What's there to be afraid of?

"It's hard for me to tell you we're dealing with a lot of adversity when we're No. 1 in the East," general manager David Griffin told reporters. "But we have a tendency to be our best when our backs are against the wall, so I have no reason to believe that won't be true now."

Even if you want to credit James for his criticism of the Cavs' depth, you might then ask him how wasting roster spots on his old pals helps. Chris Andersen and James Jones aren't on the team unless James wants them there. Beyond those two, Griffin's moves have been borderline magical. Getting Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, Channing Frye and Kyle Korver over the past couple of years—with minimal payroll flexibility—is award-worthy work.

The Cavaliers aren't perfect, and they've looked deeply flawed of late. As a leadership tactic, James has good reason to start sounding alarms.

But now, as the Cavs continue on their third straight season of championship pursuits without a viable in-conference challenger, it's easy to see why they're not responding to James' efforts. They've been here before, faced adversity, fired coaches midseason, played bad D, struggled to trust each other on O, and still come out with two trips to the Finals.

Maybe James senses this crisis is greater. Maybe he's delivering the message at the right time.

But you can't blame the Cavs for tuning it out.

The Celtics Found Themselves

It'll take time for the Boston Celtics to address the issues that contributed to a bottom-five defense since Jan. 1, but the fight they showed in a 120-109 win over the Houston Rockets was a good first step.

Jonas Jerebko was bloodied, the Celtics were incensed with some tough calls and Brad Stevens even got a rare technical foul. Amid the chaos, a pair of impassioned runs in the third and fourth quarters put Boston over the top.

The competitiveness was a welcome sign, especially after Stevens had this to say to reporters following Tuesday's loss to the Washington Wizards, Boston's third straight: "We just don't have enough impact on the ball. That's the bottom line. We just don't impact the ball enough, and I think that's something that has been a strength of ours at times in the past."

The Celtics rank 21st in block rate and 18th in steal rate, which corroborates Stevens' observations about the lack of defensive force. Isaiah Thomas' 38 points will stand out as the big number against Houston, but the 10 steals will probably make Stevens happiest.

Offense hasn't been an issue for the Celtics this season. If this is the start of a defensive awakening, maybe Cleveland will finally have something to worry about.

Dion Waiters Confounds

After downing the Warriors on Monday with 33 points and a game-winning trey, Dion Waiters helped the Miami Heat erase an 18-point deficit to win their fifth straight game Wednesday.

His 14 fourth-quarter points (out of 24 on the night) were the biggest reason the Heat overtook the Brooklyn Nets in a 109-106 victory. They were also the best evidence yet that Waiters is preternaturally skilled at getting your team the result it does not want.

Usually, that means he's taking bad shots and hurting your chances to win. In this instance, a Heat club that should be hellbent on tanking to speed up a rebuild is watching in awe as Waiters procures improbable wins in bunches.

There's no explaining this, but it sure is fun.

Felines Aloft!

Milwaukee, WI - JANUARY 25: Nerlens Noel #4 of the Philadelphia 76ers goes to the basket against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 25, 2017 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that,

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This isn't helping the narrative that the Philadelphia 76ers are nothing without Joel Embiid, but who cares?

The Sixers are rolling!

A 114-109 win over the Milwaukee Bucks gave Philly its fifth win in six games and ran its January record to 9-3. Embiid was sidelined with a sore knee, but Nerlens Noel put up 16 points, 13 rebounds and a key late jumper to down the Bucks. Five other Sixers scored in double figures, as Gerald Henderson led the way with 20 off the bench.

Philadelphia is now just 4.5 games out of the No. 8 spot in the East, and only the surging Washington Wizards have played better since the calendar flipped.

In the interest of equal time, we have to feature Malcolm Brogdon's nasty jam on Noel.

But even that can't dampen the enthusiasm or quell the cat-raising.

"
#RaiseThecat pic.twitter.com/428xMu9bLp
— Ben Simmons (@BenSimmons25) January 21, 2017"

Yeah, this is a thing now.

Marc Gasol and Karma Are Killing the Raptors

When Marc Gasol scored 16 points in the first four minutes of the Memphis Grizzlies' 101-99 victory against the Toronto Raptors, he was just getting started.

He'd go on to finish with a career-high 42 on the night which, in isolation, wouldn't necessarily indicate the Raptors were under a curse or paying some kind of cosmic price for karmic wrongs. Gasol has become a monstrous offensive weapon this season, averaging over 20 points per game after never topping 17.4 in his eight previous seasons.

But Vince Carter, who turns 40 on Thursday, also did this:

So it's pretty clear the Raptors have affronted a deity or upset a universal balance of some kind. It's possible they're also shook after getting destroyed by the Warriors on Dec. 28; their 6-10 record since then is good corroborative evidence.

Whatever's going on, Toronto needs to sort this out. Maybe distancing itself from Drake is a reasonable first thought.

Jimmy Butler Is Not Happy

The Chicago Bulls got inspired efforts from Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, who scored 40 and 33 points respectively, in a 119-114 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

And Butler was less than jazzed about the commitment of his teammates in the defeat (NSFW language warning):

Chicago has been wildly inconsistent this year, and this latest loss dumps it to 23-24.

Though that's probably better than many expected after such an odd summer from a roster-construction standpoint, it's not enough to keep the principals happy.

The trade deadline could get very interesting if the dissatisfaction in Chicago persists—which, let's be honest, it will.

Highlight Variety Is Good

If I told you somebody on the Oklahoma City Thunder threw down a full-speed windmill-ish hammer dunk on Anthony Davis, you'd probably assume it was Russell Westbrook, yawn and wait for me to say something a bit less predictable.

But it was Enes Kanter this time!

Westbrook finished with another triple-double (yawn again), amassing 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in OKC's 114-105 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. But he does that all the time. Getting big-time plays from Kanter, not to mention excellent production, is the bigger story.

The Thunder's beastly backup big contributed 17 points and 11 boards in 21 minutes, combining with Steven Adams (20 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and three assists) to demonize the Pelicans' front line—which saw Davis depart after only 16 minutes with a flare-up in his sore right quad.

When OKC gets help from anyone besides Russ, it's a whole lot harder to handle. Kanter and Adams are providing assistance frequently these days, which is probably why the Thunder are a season-best eight games over .500 with the Dallas Mavericks on deck Thursday.

No Streaking Allowed

If the Cavs would just handle their losses like the Warriors do, we wouldn't have to get all philosophical about motivation and urgency and fatalism. Because when the Dubs fall, they invariably get right back up, hit a bunch of threes and beat whoever's in front of them next.

They downed the Charlotte Hornets 113-103 on Wednesday behind 80 combined points from Kevin Durant (33), Stephen Curry (28) and Klay Thompson (19) to run their streak of consecutive games without back-to-back losses to 132.

That's right: They haven't had a regular-season losing streak since April 2015. And they haven't lost three straight since November 2013. Please reserve all "Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the Finals" jokes for another time. We've all heard them, and we're just making a point about the regular season, you hacks.

The way the Warriors handle slips could be instructive for Cleveland. Instead of getting tight, pointing fingers and spouting off about change, the Dubs sort of just keep goofing around on offense and defending like lunatics.

Durant and Draymond Green were everywhere in this one, combining for seven of the team's 14 blocks.

If James and the Cavs ever get tired of doom and gloom, they could do worse than following Golden State's lead.