Cavs fall to Grizz in season opener

 Disclaimer:  My routine for most games is watch the first two quarters, then walk the dog during half time, so I typically miss about half of the 3rd quarter.  

The two risks I listed in the game preview?  Ja Morant getting to the hoop and offensive rebounding.  Play 1, Ja gets to the hoop for an easy layup, play 2 Steve Adams grabs an offensive rebound off a miss.  Le sigh.

Offense:  Let’s ignore the ortg for a min, no wait it was 120 let’s focus on the ortg!  

First off the Cavs did not suffer from a ridiculous amount of turnovers like they did in preseason, 10 TOs and a 9% TO rate is much, much better.  They managed to get good looks at the hoop- 38 3s against 15 2s out of the paint, and 40 shots inside the paint along with 18 FTAs.  This offensive production was fluky from a shot making perspective, hitting sub 37% from 3 with a good distribution of attempts- it wasn’t Okroro heaving 9 attempts or Mobley or Stevens.  We got 25 looks from our top 4 in terms of who we hope shoots the ball (Sexton, Garland, Markkanen, Love), 7 more from Rubio, and zero to three from the rest of the rotation.  We should probably expect to hit 37% or better with this distribution of (eye test) mostly open 3s.  

Jarrett Allen’s big game (25 points on 98% TS) was a function of  spacing, good ball movement and good decisions.  He took one 15ft jumper from the free throw line, three ‘jumpers’ or hook shots from inside 10 ft and 7 shots right at the rim.  Cavs guards were consistently finding him in the PnR with either Adams caught in between or after a switch with a guard like Morant on him, and he got a few easy ones in transition with Adams being left behind.  

The Tower City lineup (3 bigs?, what are we calling this) did its job offensively, with each big hitting double digit points, each one getting open looks and a couple of breaks away (LM going 3/7 from 3 instead of 2/7 and that blown goaltending call against him) from all of them having really nice nights.  

So what went wrong?

The Cavs couldn’t stop the dribble penetration.  Ja had a huge night with 37 points, 6 assists on 62% TS against 2 turnovers, and they got 42 with 6 assists from Melton and Bane against 2 TOs, and Jones came off the bench with 5 assists and no turnovers.  The dribble penetration forced switches and Allen had a couple of nice plays defending Mortant, but even when misses were forced this left Adams (6 orebs) to be boxed out by a guard or help boxing him out opening up the lane for their wings and guards (6 combined) to slash in for 2nd chance opportunities.  There isn’t an obvious answer there, Okoro had some success defending Morant and was +8, but had 4 fouls in 20 mins of play.  One unexplored option would be to bring in Stevens to see if he can slow down the onslaught without the (on court) rotations getting messy.  

This is the issue with the Cavs roster, and has been for 3 years.  A lack of a wing/guard stopper puts them in this position against certain types of players.  Is this a Ja thing this year where his unique strengths will break the Cavs D or will a wide range of guards be able to beat them.  Partial answers will come on Saturday against Trae Young, can they let him get his without the defense being broken and allowing open 3s offensive rebounds etc?  We will see, his game is stylistically different from Ja’s but produces a lot of the same high quality outcomes for his team.