Life without Robin Lopez is being felt in every aspect of this team. At first, it was doable and seemed to be going better than expected. For the past month, Lopez’s absence has been taken advantage of and cost Portland a couple of games in this stretch. Tonight’s game, however, was all because of Kyrie Irving’s unconscious night.
The Portland Trail Blazers fall to the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-94. The Blazers fall to 32-14 on the season, 12-9 on the road, while the Cavs improve to 27-20 on the season and 16-9 at home. The Cavs are finally getting it all together it seems as they now are riding an eight-game winning streak.
Portland, after digging themselves a hole early, had to fight their way back. In the second half, their defensive intensity as well as defensive assignments were a lot better, but when a player is feeling it from distance, there is only so much a team can do. Portland fans have experienced that first-hand a dozen times. Irving finished with 55 points on 17-for-36 shooting, 11-for-19 from three. Unsuprisingly, he recorded a new career-high in points and made threes as well as setting a franchise record of most points scored in their home arena. Irving was just unconscious. The clutch possession at the end of the game said it all. After dribbling the ball for most of the shot clock, Irving stepped in just a little bit on the right wing, he was about three or four steps behind the line, and swished what ended up being the dagger in Portland’s hopes. It looked like he just threw the ball up and hoped it went in.
Portland missed an opportunity. Not only was LeBron James sitting out with a wrist injury, but Kevin Love and the rest of the squad were have, honestly, mediocre to bad nights. Love finished with just 10 points on 3-for-15 shooting, 2-for-8 from three with 12 rebounds. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, Love was ice cold the rest of the night. The Cavs only got 11 points from their bench and even J.R. Smith was having an awful night. It was the fact that Irving was having a career night that made the difference. The Cavs, prior to this game, were 1-8 without LeBron. It showed as the Cavs almost lost this game even with Irving going nuts.
Portland had a three-point lead with 2:29 remaining in the fourth quarter after being 14 down in the second half. Portland had multiple opportunities to make it hard for the Cavs. After a missed Irving jumper, Portland missed two consecutive chances on the same possession to give themselves some breathing room. Wesley Matthews missed two momentum-changing three-pointers and Damian Lillard, struggling with his shot, missed the potential overtime shot with 0:02 remaining after Irving iced it.
Portland had chances, that was the theme.
Three things jump out to me as the major factors in this loss.
One is the first quarter problems. They continue to persist. Portland, for whatever reason, has a hard time defending in the first quarter. In the past couple of weeks, teams have run over the Blazers in the first quarter, causing Portland to always dig out of these ten point holes. The fans get to see this team come back from ten-point deficits so regularly that they think it is easy. In actuality, it is anything but. A lot of teams in the NBA struggle with coming back even from a five-point deficit and the fact that Portland has won double-digit games when being down by ten at some point is astounding.
The Cavs outscored Portland 31-21 in the first quarter, but not by hot shooting. The Blazers actually shot a higher percentage (44%) than the Cavs (37%), but offensive rebounds, second-chance points, turnovers and the FT line gave the Cavs an advantage. The Cavs would grab seven second chance points to Portland’s zero. Portland would turn the ball over three times resulting in six Cleveland points. The Cavs grabbed four offensive rebounds out of their 14 rebounds in the quarter. Portland only mustered eight. Obviously, the issue is that Lopez is not in the paint and I think fans finally recognize all the little things Lopez did for this team. Portland has had to get lucky on rebounding and grabbing the key boards. Right now, Portland is playing like they did with J.J. Hickson. Chris Kaman is much better than Hickson, but there is still that problem of guards getting into the paint a lot easier. Second-chance points and boxing out the opposition has gotten harder to deal with.
All this being said, Portland dug themselves a ten-point hole quickly and it was really the factor of this game. In the next three quarters, Portland either outscored the Cavs or both teams broke even.
Secondly, the rebounding problem continues. The Cavs out-rebounded Portland 46-39 and they grabbed a whopping 14 offensive rebounds. A couple of those came in crucial moments in the fourth quarter. At one point, the Cavs looked to have five opportunities at a possession if it had not been for a shot-clock violation.
Portland did grab 11 offensive rebounds, but it is clear that the other team is getting a lot more chances at grabbing them because of Lopez being on the bench. The rebounding is the obvious area where Lopez’s absence will be most felt, statistically. Timofey Mozgov, the recently-acquired center for Cleveland, had ten rebounds, three of them offensive. Mozgov is a big player, but is not overpowering or intimidating. LaMarcus Aldridge had his way with Mozgov the whole game. Yes, the Cavs have Love, who is rebounding fiend, but it was still felt and was definitely a factor.
Finally, it was just a fantastic night and a fantastic display by Irving. There are no plays or strategies a team can run when a player gets that hot. Again, Blazer fans have seen this happen all the time. Lillard will get into that zone or Matthews will get into that zone where everything is falling even if it was a prayer. Irving hit more shots from three than from around the bucket. He was 3-for-11 in the first quarter then turned on the jets. Nicolas Batum did a nice job of trying to deny Irving the ball, but late in the game, once Batum went under a screen, it was over. There is no game plan for that phenomenon, it just happens and teams have to live with it.
Aldridge should play with his thumb injured more often. He finished with 38 points on 13-for-23 shooting, 2-for-3 from three with 11 rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks. It is a shame that Portland could not pull the victory out and that Irving’s display will overshadow Aldridge’s fantastic outing. In the third quarter, Irving and Aldridge traded blows. Aldridge had 15 on 6-for-9 shooting, 1-for-1 from three and Irving had 11 on 4-for-8 shooting, 3-for-5 from three. Both players were locked in and Aldridge was able to move around Mozgov and take a ton of contact without bothering his thumb too much.
Lillard has struggled the past couple of weeks shooting-wise. He finished with 14 points on 4-for-19 shooting, 3-for-10 from three with five assists and one block. In his past ten games, he has shot 38% from the field. He is still averaging 21.2 points in that span, but his efficiency has gone down of late to say the least.
Matthews struggled as well. He finished with 11 points on 4-for-10 shooting, 3-for-8 from three. Matthews had two open looks that I am sure he would like back that could have given Portland the momentum they needed. They just rimmed out.
Meyers Leonard deserves a little praise. Leonard, not only has been playing consistently and better, got into a scuffle with Tristan Thompson. Leonard did not back down and actually started the altercation after being frustrated with Thompson’s questionable physical play. I was glad to see Meyers gaining toughness. He finished with nine points on 4-for-6 shooting, 1-for-3 from three with two rebounds.
Portland will have a day off before taking on the extremely hot and buzzsaw-like Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks are currently riding a 17-game winning streak. To say Portland has a tough game ahead would be an understatement. The Hawks are playing at another level and should have three all-stars in the all-star game. Tip-off is at 4:30 p.m. PST on Friday. Stay tuned!