The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Scrappy Cavaliers find ways to win
Everything the Cavaliers do, especially on the defensive end of the floor, starts with spirit, competitiveness and selflessness. Jeff Schudel looks at the 9-9 Cavs.
The Cavaliers are so far ahead of where they were a season ago, it sometimes takes reminding that they have been together only since the start of training camp Dec. 1.
Newcomers Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince, who have fit in seamlessly, have been Cavaliers only two weeks, though no one would know that if judging only by the way they play.
The Cavs didn’t win for the ninth time last year until their 30th game of the season when they outlasted the Atlanta Hawks, 121-118, for their third straight victory, which, it turned out was their longest winning streak of 2019-20.
The 2020-21 version of the Cavaliers won for the ninth time by dispatching the Detroit Pistons, 122-107, on Jan. 27 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, putting them 12 games ahead of last season’s pace. The Cavs are 9-9 and would be in the playoffs if the postseason started today.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff summed up the early success of his team in three words in a recent Zoom interview: “Spirit, competitiveness and selflessness.”
Everything the Cavaliers
do, especially on the defensive end of the floor, starts with those three traits. Bickerstaff is too modest to point out he is the one who instilled them when he took over for John Beilein at the AllStar break last season.
The Cavaliers lead the league with an average of 17.5 forced turnovers a game. They have had 10 or more steals 11 times this season — three more than in the 65 games played last season. Their 9.8 steals per game is second in the league behind only Memphis’ 10.4 a game.
The Cavs stole the ball from the Pistons 14 times.
The most important defensive stat of all, points allowed, reflects best the improvement the Cavs are showing under Bickerstaff. They were seventh in
the league before playing the Pistons, allowing 109.1 points a game. Last season they allowed the eighthmost points at 114.8 points a game.
Scoring has been the problem for the Cavs this season, which explains why they aren’t better than .500. Their average of 104.5 points a game is 29th in the league, ahead of only the Knicks at 101.5 a game.
The Cavs were sluggish in the first half of their game with the Pistons and trailed, 56-54, at intermission. Center Andre Drummond was a frigid 5-for-14 in the first 24 minutes.
The second half reflected the scrappy style and ball movement Bickerstaff expects from his team. The Cavaliers won the race to loose balls.
They found the open man with their passes. They forced the Pistons into mistakes
After assisting on just 10 buckets in the first half, they added nine assists in the third quarter and outscored the Pistons, 36-26. They had six more helpers in the fourth quarter and outscored the Pistons, 32-25.
Drummond is shooting .539 from the field for his 10-year career. His 9-for24 shooting night against his former team uncharacteristically was as cold as the outside air, but he contributed in other ways with 16 rebounds and five steals.
Prince and Allen, acquired Jan. 13 from the Nets as part of the fourteam trade that sent James Harden from Houston to Brooklyn, were part of the second-half surge.
Prince scored just four points in 13 minutes of the first half. He scored 12 in the second half when the Cavs needed him most. Allen had eight of his 10 points in the second half.
A team with “spirit, competitiveness and selflessness” will go further than what believe the names on paper might say it should. The Cavaliers keep proving that.
Reach Schudel at JSchudel@News-Herald. com. On Twitter: @jsproinsider