In possibly the most anticipated home opener in the history of sports, the Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the New York Knicks by a score of 95-90. The 3-headed monster of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and LeBron James debuted, but left much to be desired. James looked extremely passive on offense and didn’t attack the basket with authority except for one drive in the fourth quarter. The bench was totally nonexistent, offering up a paltry 12 points. The Cavaliers displayed some peculiar playing time throughout the night as well, not getting as much out of the team as they could. Also, the Cavs clearly looked like a new team, with a lot of bad passes and slow rotations on defense.
So…what needs to change?
LeBron James
LeBron James came into the game with a lot of emotion tonight and it showed. James finished with 17 points on 5-15 shooting and also had eight turnovers. This is possibly James’ worst game in years, as he failed to crack 20 points and almost had 10 turnovers. James was out played by Carmelo Anthony, and that was with Anthony playing an average game. James didn’t seem to want to step on any toes and he almost refused to attack the basket throughout the first three quarters. Whether he was trying to get Love and Irving started off well or if he was trying to play through Blatt’s offense, he seemed uncomfortable. Taking a lot of mid-range jumpers, James couldn’t find a rhythm and could almost be thought of as a detriment to the offense. He couldn’t hold onto the ball all night and put his teammates and himself in a lot of bad positions throughout the night. James needs to play better if the Cavs want to make the finals.
Bench Problems
The Cavaliers were lauded all summer for how well they improved their bench. With key additions of Mike Miller, Shawn Marion, Brendan Haywood, and James Jones, those players played a combined 13 minutes. Matthew Delladova (a holdover from last year) played 18 minutes, including several in crunch time. Miller and Marion didn’t have any points, while Jones and Haywood didn’t even see the floor. The Cavs bench got outscored by 29, as the Knicks put up 41 and looked much better and coherent. The Cavs need defense and 3-point shooting from their bench if they want to be successful this season.
Minute Distribution
Prior to the beginning of the season, David Blatt talked about James sitting for extended periods of times, in order to rest his legs for the playoffs. That wasn’t true at all Thursday night, as James played a bizarre 43 minutes. In fact, the Cavs seemed as if they were playing with almost a playoff style rotation, playing only 8 players double digit minutes. With a team that needed to get stops late, Marion and Haywood could’ve been very key players as they are both known for their defense. The Knicks shot 53% from the floor and the Cavs couldn’t get a stop at the end of the game when they needed it most.
Team Building Woes
The Cavs are a new super-team, and as we have seen with past super-teams, they need some time to gel. The 2011 Heat and 2012 Lakers both had major growing pains, with both teams struggling to find their footing in the beginning of the year. The Cavs can expect to follow this path, probably a bad first month before really hitting their stride heading into the playoffs. The Cavs had a lot of passes go wayward as they were trying to guess where their teammates would go. Too often the guy with the ball would jump to pass and get caught in the air, because a teammate didn’t react the way he expected him too. The team also switched way too much on defense, causing them to get beat and be put in horrible matchups. There was way too many times when Dion Waiters was matched up on Carmelo Anthony in the post. The bad passes and the too much switching are easy fixes that just come with playing together.
It will be interesting to watch this team grow and develop throughout the year. When the Miami Heat of the LeBron years first started playing together, they had no concept of spacing and played way too much isolation basketball. Four months into the season, they had the best spacing of any team in NBA history and they moved the ball as well as any team in the league. The Cavaliers will make adjustments as the season moves along, and eventually, they will figure it out. If a team is going to keep the Cavaliers out of the Finals, this will be the year they have to do it.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on twitter – @CMurrayLWOS. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld – and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest in sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
Have you tuned into Last Word On Sports Radio? LWOS is pleased to bring you 24/7 sports radio to your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. What are you waiting for?
