Tremendously entertaining game and for once the Cavs held on and closed out the win, although they were in danger of choking it away. The Wizards took 106 shots to 81 for the Cavs. How often does a team take 25 less shots and win? My guess is - almost never.
After giving up 41 points in the first quarter I was thinking the coaching change sure didn't do anything for the defense, but the last three quarters the Cavs allowed 25, 21, and 21 points against a good offensive team. For the game they held the Wizards to 38.7% from the field. I loved all the switching. The improvement was obvious (after the first quarter). Even in the first quarter a lot of the Wizards' points came off turnovers where the defense didn't have a chance to set up. Thompson played great defense in the paint.
Turnovers were the big problem as the Cavs had 20 through three quarters, but only one in the 4th as they overtook the Wizards and put them away. I was very impressed with how our young guards stepped up in crunch time. When the Cavs caught the Wizards at 95-all I was thinking, "That was fun, but now Beal is going to take over this game." Wrong. Beal was 9-for-28 tonight after going 15-for-22 a month ago. He was 1-for-10 from deep as the switching forced him to take contested 3's. He did have one of the more impressive dunks by a guard that I've seen this year when he posterized Drummond, however.
The Cavs had seven players in double figures as a lot of guys contributed. I never thought I'd see seven players score in double figures with one of them NOT being Kevin Love. He and Porter were really off their games tonight. Porter was a disaster with 5 fouls and 4 turnovers in 13 minutes. After the last foul he was so frustrated he got a double technical and got tossed. Fortunately, he was escorted off the floor before he did something to get himself suspended.
Darius Garland had a great second half. He was a +17 in 36 minutes, both team highs. Nobody else was closer than +9. He made some huge shots down the stretch.
Tristan Thompson had another outstanding game, both offensively and defensively. TT had a line of 10/11/4 with 2 blocks. The four assists were the most surprising. For the second straight game Andre Drummond watched the Cavs put the game away late behind the excellent play of Thompson. He was just playing too well to be taken out.
For the second straight game the Cavs had three double-doubles; Cedi (16/10), Dre (12/12), and TT (10/11). Drummond, however, was charged with 7 turnovers in 22 minutes. Otherwise he was great with 12 points, 12 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. A little of everything but way too many TO's.
Besides the 21 turnovers the Cavs allowed 17 offensive rebounds which explains Washington getting 25 more shots. They need to clean that up if they want to keep this winning streak going.
Congratulations to Coach Bickerstaff on his first win as a Cavalier.
