The Cavs finally get a losing team but it makes no difference as they lose by 16. I don't know if there's a team in the NBA the Cavs can beat right now. I'm starting to think Nance is the team's MVP although Allen made a nice case tonight.
The Thunder rank 27th of 30 in points per game but the Cavs were still helpless defensively, giving up 62 in the first half. They would have given up another 62 in the second but the Thunder slowed down the game in the last few minutes. They shot 54.4% after shooting 36% in their loss to Milwaukee two nights ago.
In addition to no defense the Cavs lost this one due to no bench and no three-point shooting. Their bench was outscored 42-9 and went 3-for-13. Frankly, Dotson, McGee, Stevens and Windler sucked. The Cavs were outscored by 14 points in McGee's six minutes, meaning they were outscored by 2 in Allen's 42 minutes. Basically the game was lost in those six minutes.
The Cavs were 8-for-35 on 3's while the Thunder was 13-for-28. The Thunder rank 28th in 3-point percentage but tonight they were one bucket short of 50%. Every opponent shoots and scores much better against the Cavs than their norm. In the first half the Cavs were 4-for-17 from deep and our bench was outscored 29-4, which means our starters outscored theirs by 14. For the entire game our starters outscored theirs by 17 points.
Their four bench players were all between +18 and +20; ours were between -10 and -17.
Cedi was 0-for-8 on 3's. Absolutely no excuse for going 0-for-8 at home after a day off. And they were all uncontested. Sexton was 1-for-6.
The disparity between the Cavs' ability to shoot 3's and their opponents' ability is night and day. Every damn game. Until the Cavs can at least not be blown out in the 3-point game there is no chance.
Kudos to Jarrett Allen for hustling for 42 minutes and scoring 26 points with 17 rebounds on 11-for-11 from the field. Garland had 21 points, 8 assists and 3 steals but was abused defensively. Sexton had 27 points with 5 rebounds and 3 assists but committed four turnovers. Other than those three we had nothing. Okoro took 12 shots, 11 of which were 3's. He made four, but some of the others were embarassing, especially the air ball on an uncontested corner shot.
As usual the opponent had a tall, skilled wing the Cavs had no answer for. Tonight it was SGA who had 31 points, including 10 on free throws.
I thought it was interesting that JBB kept the starters on the floor right up to the end instead of pulling them with the Thunder comfortably ahead with a few minutes to go. It's like he was saying, "That wasn't good enough, you have to stay on the floor, you haven't earned the priviledge of sitting out the last few minutes of garbage time." Or maybe he was so disgusted by the bench that he refused to put them back in. Either way I like it.
Until Nance gets back the Cavs have little chance against anybody. Minnesota is the only Western Conference team they might have a shot against.