The Cavs played one of their best games. Love commented that they are playing better on the road now than at home. They seem to rise to the occasion and play better against the good teams while falling on their face against teams like the Knicks and Golden State.
With TT out they had 31 assists after getting 34 against the Knicks. Nance's passing and floor spacing creates better flow and ball movement. Larry had another good game with a line of 14/10/5 off the bench. Henson really surprised me with his defense on Steven Adams, who has 3" and 30 pounds on him. I expected Adams to bully Henson and do whatever he wanted, but Adams had 6 points and only one offensive rebound in 30 minutes. I've liked the combination of Nance and Henson on the floor together for some time. If TT is traded we'll see more of it.
The defense was better as they limited OKC to 109 points after giving up 121 to them a month ago and 127 to the Knicks in regulation two nights ago. The Cavs also outrebounded OKC 45-40 despite no TT. As much as I appreciate TT's effort and energy, I like this version of the team better. There's more ball movement and better defense, but they didn't get killed on the glass.
Yes, Exum had his worst game with 0 points and 4 turnovers in 15 minutes. The Cavs got nothing from their guards off the bench. Exum and Delly combined for 0 points, 4 assists, and 5 turnovers in 20 minutes. Next year if Windler is in the rotation I expect Porter will be the third guard while Windler and Cedi split the small forward position.
Porter contributed with a line of 13/4/3 but had five fouls and three turnovers in 31 minutes. The Cavs had 19 TO's, but I agree that most were due to OKC's defense, which ranks 11th in points allowed per game. Love was having trouble getting clean looks but managed to get his normal 20 and 7 while dishing out five assists.
So now we wait to see if Thompson is moved today. Reports are the front office was working into the night. My guess is they're talking to several teams and trying to play them off against each other and end up with somebody caving and coming up with a first round pick or a young player the Cavs like.
So now it's three days off, then two more days off after Sunday's game. Then eight days off for the break. The Cavs play only two games in the next 15 days. That's a lot of time to practice and clean up some things, although there will be some time off over the break. Hopefully the Cavs are successful in trading TT (which both he and the team want) and after the break we'll see more of this new, more movement and passing oriented, version.
