Some guys here say they don't like Nance, but he's active - 9 pts, 9 rebs, 3 steals. He was the only plus guy on the bench.
Yeah, he did a nice job anticipating lobs and stealing them. Love the way he ran the break and finished off that pass from Delly. If he could just develop a baby hook like TT he'd be a pretty decent big.
The Cavs now have their first winning streak of the season. Great job on defense holding the Knicks to 87 points, 13 below their average. Two nights ago they held the Wizards to 15 points below their average. Bickerstaff is doing an excellent job. Longabardi was awful.
The Cavs got to the line and knocked 'em down, going 28-for-31, with two misses coming after the game was decided. The Wizards made 16 free throws, so it was a 12-point Cavs advantage from the stripe. They played good defense while minimizing personal fouls.
The Knicks shot only 36% from the field and turned the ball over 21 times. Some of that involved poor shooting and ball handling by the Knicks along with a propensity to commit offensive fouls. These guys like to throw their weight around. But the Cavs forced a lot of missed shots and turnovers.
The Knicks starters were all between -12 and -28 as the Cavs starting lineup totally dominated when they were on the floor. The only negative was the 17 offensive rebounds by the Knicks, which is the second game in a row the Cavs allowed 17. Beilein is using some small lineups and it makes controlling the defensive glass more difficult.
Sexton had a career high 31 points and was a +26. Wow! TT had a quiet 9 points and 9 boards, but the Cavs were +33 in his 31 minutes on the floor - best on the team. Clarkson had a busy night with 17 points in 20 minutes along with 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
Cedi, Porter, Clarkson and Love combined to shoot 2-for-16 on 3's, so the Cavs could have won by a lot more than 21 points with some halfway decent 3-point shooting. They missed a lot of wide open looks, but I noticed the 3-point shooting suffers a lot on the road. Hopefully they're knock some down against Philly on Tuesday.
Julius Randle is a load at 6'8", 250 pounds. He'll be 25 later this month. He had 20 points, 16 rebounds, and got TT into foul trouble. The Cavs did a great job on Marcus Morris, coming off a 29-point game in the win over Dallas, holding him to 9 points on 3-for-12 shooting.
Rookie R.J. Barrett, who the Cavs would have taken if he fell to them, had 9 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 3 turnovers. The consolation prize was Darius Garland who had 12 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal. That's 27 points for Garland the last two games after a three-game stretch where he was 5-for-29. That Come-to-Jesus film session with Beilein has him on the right track. It's great to see he's coachable and can learn from watching film.