Technically, the Cavs lost tonight on a buzzer-beating 3 by D-League call-up Sundiata Gaines. However, the game was really lost the whole way through due to the Cavs’ well-established Achilles heels: turnovers, poor free-throw shooting, and a tendency toward stagnant offense.
The team coughed the ball up 21 times tonight, or one turnover every 2 minutes, 18 seconds. They missed 10 free throws (25 / 35 for 71.4%), including two in the deciding minute of play. They assisted on just over half of their makes from the field (51.7%) for a raw team assist total of 16, versus Utah assisting on 78.3% of their made shots for 25 raw team assists.
To my eye, the Cavs’ defensive rotations were a step slow for the entire first half and portions of the second, but I can’t criticize their effort too heavily when they held the Jazz to 40.5% shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle, albeit narrowly (+1 in the raw rebound total, +1.4% in Total Rebounding Rate).
On the season, Coldstone’s Crew is 11th in the league in Turnover Rate, or the percentage of a team’s total possessions that end in a TO. (The Cavs’ TOR is currently 14.06.) Doesn’t sound bad until you realize that this is one of those scales where you want to be 30th. Of the accepted contenders, only Boston is worse — 2nd overall, in fact, with a TOR of 14.93%.
Meanwhile, the Cavs are 21st in the league from the charity stripe (73.9% as a team). Of course, they were below that average tonight. As we’ve preached before, most times the differences between good and bad teams in these statistical ratings really boil down to just a handful fewer makes / misses. Tonight was one of those games where 1-2 more made free throws would’ve been the difference in the game.
On the up side, the Cavs are actually 7th in the league in both Assist % — with dimes on 57.6% of their hoops, — and Assist Rate, which is the number of total possessions ending in an assist. (To clarify the difference between AST% and AR: AST% tells us only what percentage of made baskets were assisted, whereas AR tells us the percentage of all possessions that ended in an assist.) So I should shut up about that. They had an off-night, but they’re one of the better teams in the league when it comes to moving the ball, despite what the mainstream media would have you believe.
The problem is that Utah leads the league in both of these categories with a 67.08AST% and 24.42 AR. Didn’t help that the Jazz eclipsed that average AST% by a country mile tonight (78.3AST% for the game).
Considering that we’re officially halfway through the season, it’s becoming increasingly likely that these areas are going to remain persistent vulnerabilities for this particular Cavs team. They are definitely two areas of concern when it comes to playoff time and possessions are at a premium. I’m not saying anyone should panic, especially considering the continued strength of the defense. But as the Cavs proved again tonight, some times these issues can kill you.
Holland and I will be at Staples Center for the finale of the road trip against the Clippers this Saturday. I’m considering trying to do a retroactive live blog like my previous Indians one back in the summer. We’ll see if enough noteworthy things happen at the arena. It’s really all about the atmosphere.
-T
