Cavaliers dominate late, storm past Pacers

  The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't start slow in Indianapolis against the Pacers-

The Pacers were simply white-hot as Indiana scored a franchise-record 47 points in the first quarter and it looked like one of those nights that you run into the wrong team on the wrong night.

However, shooting like that is unsustainable on even the best evening, and this Cavaliers team began to chip away from a nineteen point deficit after the first quarter,

Still late in the third, Indiana led by as much as eighteen points, and then Cleveland turned on the gas to catch the Pacers and blow by them to take a 120-113 win.

Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen each scored 22 points to lead a balanced Cleveland offense that saw seven Cavaliers finish with double-figure scoring.

Cleveland's win moved them to 35-21 overall and moved into a tie with Chicago for second place in the Eastern Conference, one game behind Miami, and a tie for the Central Division lead with those same Bulls.

Cleveland travels to Philadelphia tonight for their final game before the All-Star break against the 76ers and their new arrival James Harden.

Swashbucklings

1) Cleveland played again without Darius Garland and I'm not sure if he will play tonight against Philadelphia as my guess is that the team wishes to keep Garland's back from pounding on back-to-back nights.

And with the All-Star game in Cleveland, it's possible that the Cavaliers want to be very cautious as I'm sure the first-time All-Star will badly want to play in that game at home.

2) Caris LeVert made his first start as a Cavalier and made the most of it with his high total.

Levert hit ten of nineteen shots and drove to the hoop with strength against his former teammates.

LeVert only shot two three-pointers, hitting one, and I wonder if the reason that he didn't shoot as many was his inside knowledge of the people attempting to defend against him?

3) Still, the Cavalier of the night, in my opinion, was the veteran Rajon Rondo, who hit six of seven shots, two from three-point distance, and with his play in the third quarter helped keep Cleveland in sight of Indiana for a potential comeback.

Rondo finished the night with seventeen points, seven rebounds. and six assists as Rondo continues to duel with Brandon Goodwin for the first point guard off the bench behind Darius Garland, which is a role that is even more important on evenings that Garland doesn't play.

Goodwin was a coach's decision DNP on the evening.

4) Kevin Love continues to buy into his sixth man role and he is doing it in ways other than only scoring.

Love seems to be all over the bench encouraging teammates in good times and bad and looks like he is having more fun even than in the championship days with LeBron James.,

5) Love is also drawing charges at a very high rate.

John Michael (Cavalier play by play man) mentioned during the telecast that Love had around fifteen charges with the second-highest number at only three.

Charges are always an effort play anyway as it takes a lot to see a two hundred-plus pound man flying at you and knowing you have to set your feet and take the hit, so Love accumulating so many of these makes you believe that he has truly bought into his role in the program.

6) Indiana made a big trade with Sacramento after the Pacers peddled Caris LeVert to Cleveland and I think it was a good one for the Pacers as they added Tyrese Halliburton as part of a six-player swap with the Kings.

While I like Domantas Sabonis (the main player heading west) a lot as a player, Halliburton had impressed me a lot in his year and a half with Sacramento after being drafted 12th in the 2020 draft from Iowa State.

In fact, I had Halliburton pegged as the future face of the Kings and their foundational building block in yet another Sacramento rebuild, so I was shocked to see him traded to Indiana.

The game was the debut in Indiana for Halliburton (as well as Buddy Hield and former Cavalier Tristan Thompson) and Halliburton (and Hield) would play forty minutes in the defeat.

Halliburton would finish with twenty-three points and six assists and I have a feeling that we might be seeing some classic showdowns between Halliburton and Darius Garland over the next few seasons in divisional matchups. 

Cavaliers trade for Rajon Rondo

   The Cleveland Cavaliers ailing backcourt was shored up to a degree with the trade with the Los Angeles Lakers for veteran point guard Rajon Rondo.

Cleveland sent reserve Denzel Valentine to the New York Knicks (the Knicks and Lakers swapped some draft rights for a few European players and the Knicks adding some cash considerations)  for the thirty-five-year-old Rondo, who averaged three points and three assists off the bench for the Lakers in eighteen games.

Rondo is well past his prime but the hope is that he can still be somewhat productive in increased minutes with the second unit after Darius Garland returns.

Rondo's arrival will hopefully offset some of the lost production from Ricky Rubio's knee injury that cost Rubio the rest of the regular season and left Cleveland with only Kevin Pangos and recent ten-day signee, Brandon Goodwin, as the reserves behind Darius Garland when Garland returns from Covid protocol.

Cleveland is continued to be rumored as interested in Boston guard Dennis Schroeder to continue to improve their backcourt, which took another blow in the Cavaliers win over Indiana when Isaac Okoro was lost for two to three weeks to a sprained elbow.

Schroeder would be an upgrade over the aging Rondo and would bring averages of sixteen points and a bit under five assists a night but would be a rental as he would be a free agent at the end of the season.

The Cavaliers are also consistently mentioned as one of the teams that have been persistent in their pursuit of the Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons but I'm not sure that Philadelphia would be interested in a package that didn't include either Darius Garland or Evan Mobley, which would defeat the purpose of adding Simmons.

Cavaliers lose late to Hawks 121-118

  The Cleveland Cavaliers led by fifteen points at halftime against the visiting Atlanta Hawks but it was not enough as the Hawks outscored Cleveland by eighteen in the third period and played them even in the final quarter to take a 121-118 win in Cleveland.

Kevin Love continued his recent resurgence with 35 points and eleven rebounds off the bench to lead the Cavaliers with Jarrett Allen scoring twenty-one in his return to the lineup.

The loss was Cleveland's third in a row without Darius Garland and dropped the Cavaliers to 20-16 overall.

Cleveland will host the Indiana Pacers on Sunday evening.

Swashbucklings

1) This game was very similar to the loss to the Pelicans in New Orleans (I missed the loss to Washington as due to blackout rules, I wasn't allowed to watch on League Pass replay and I didn't have the time to watch the games live) as the Cavaliers shot well in the first half and then just shot poorly in the second half.

2) Kevin Love is playing very well of late and some of it could be that as the Cavaliers have missed various players through the Covid protocol, Cleveland is funneling much of the offense through Love- especially since the loss of Ricky Rubio as the other option at point guard.

3) Using Love in that manner may be by need rather than choice as the Cavaliers have a lack of outside shooting with the losses of Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio for the season and the temporary loss of Darius Garland and Cedi Osman.

Other than Love and maybe Lauri Markkanen, the Cavaliers have a distinct problem with their outside shooting until Garland returns but I do wonder why Dylan Windler, who is strictly a shooter, isn't getting more of a look with a roster that needs shooting.

Windler played three minutes against the Hawks and didn't attempt a shot.

4) Cleveland was forced to play Kevin Pangos twenty-four minutes at the point but Pangos didn't spend the most time at the position as recently signed Brandon Goodwin played twenty-five minutes in his first game on a ten-day contract.

Pangos finished with eight points and four assists with Goodwin winding the night up with thirteen points and six assists.

5) Cleveland attempted to fill the backup point guard vacated by the injury to Ricky Rubio by trading for veteran Rajon Rondo from the Lakers.

Cleveland traded veteran Denzel Valentine to the Lakers, who are expected to waive Valentine and create a little cap space for themselves.

Valentine was averaging less than ten minutes a night for Cleveland averaging 2.9 points per game.

Rondo wasn't playing much for the Lakers averaging only sixteen minutes a game in his eighteen games played and averaging three points and three assists but will play far more in Cleveland.

If I have time over the next day or so (unsure with the Rose Bowl and the Ortiz-Martin fight), I'll try to write a quick post on the acquisition of the veteran point guard.

6) Key in the defeat was Cleveland missing six free throws in the final period with Isaac Okoro missing three free throws in a row.

Free throws in the final period are always important but its just as important to hit them early as well.