Cavs 111, Mavs 95: Your All-Access Pass To A 'Stinker'

    “This,’’ said Mavs coach Rick Carlisle of Dallas’ 111-95 loss on Saturday in Cleveland, “was a stinker.’’

     Your All-Access Pass to a high-profile loss in Cleveland (nose plugs not included):

     Coop, like the rest of us, was hopeful that such a sense – “fat and happy,’’ Coop termed it -- would not exist.

     But …. I can offer two performances, one from each team, that suggests who had their head screwed on here.

     One is Anderson Varejao, who was a one-man possession machine, with ….. And every once in awhile, he capped the repetitive possessions himself by shooting. In fact he did so seven times – and made all seven, for 15 points.

    Two is Drew Gooden. To me, Drew reverted to the form that plagued him in his first few games with the Mavs. He was erratic, too anxious to shoot, and burdened by poor decisions. I’m not talking about losing a battle with Shaq, who toyed with Gooden a bit but still only managed nine points and six rebounds. I’m talking about the self-control that was lacking with 6:41 left and Dallas down 11 ... and then again with 4:30 left and Dallas still down 11.

     In the first snapshot, LeBron actually missed a shot and the Mavs rush upcourt. Kidd locates Gooden in the right corner, 23 feet away from the basket, for a secondary-break-style opportunity. Drew looks up … sees that there is only one player between him … and decides he’s going to take that guy one-on-one.

    “That guy’’ was LeBron. Gooden dribbled the ball off his foot and out of bounds.

     Second snapshot: Gooden gets the entry pass in the lane. The Mavs could use an easy basket, but Drew decides to get creative, spinning about in the lane and … dribbing the ball off his knee and out of bounds.

    Drew Gooden – who had his greatest NBA success as a member of the NBA Finals Cavs a couple of years ago – needed an intense effort here. Instead, I say his head wasn’t screwed on tight enough.

     MAKING FUN OF REBOUNDING: On Friday, I made fun of the Pacers for being outrebounded so badly that Indy ended up with just 33 boards. Fair is fair, so here goes: Against the Cavs, Dallas managed a pitiful 24 rebounds. That ties a franchise low.

     So the joke’s on us.

      TIM THOMAS’ SLEEPLESS NIGHT: Couldn’t figure out why Thomas, so effective now that his knee is healed, played just 11 minutes on Friday with five points and just 10 minutes more with zero points more here? Word from the Mavs camp is that Thomas “slept wrong’’ on this road trip and wrenched his back.

      Not quite as bad as Josh Howard’s ankle, Quinton Ross’ back or Erick Dampier’s mystery illness (none of those three played), but limiting enough for a Dallas team that seemed to run out of gas as the game went on.

      SPEAKING OF INJURIES. …: Give some credit to Shawn Marion (12 points six rebounds, 36 minutes) here. He limped around for the 24 hours spanning the end of the Indy game and the course of this game but on one ankle, he gave it a go. He took turns with Jason Kidd trying to stick with LeBron, but the lack of explosiveness was obvious.  

  The full, high-flying, quick-jumping Matrix that we saw in the preseason isn’t there right now, and that ankle is the reason.

    THE BEST OFFENSIVE HALF OF THE LeBRON ERA?: That’s the evaluation from no less an authority than Cavs beat writer Brian Windhorst. Cleveland led 68-55 at the half while shooting 68 percent – much of that the result of over-the-top passes that resulted in layups and dunks. Cleveland recorded 23 assists on its 26 baskets in the half.

    Meanwhile. …

   Carlisle evaluated the same half from the other end of the floor.

   “We got caught ball-watching too many times,’’ he said. “Cuts for layups, catches that led to another pass for an open three … We just played probably as poor a defensive half as we played all year.’’

     So the Cavs played their best offensive half of the half-decade, and the Mavs played their worst defensive half of the month. … and there you go.

     NO JET JINX: Jason Terry was averaging 8.7 points in his previous three meetings with the Cavs. This was the end of that. He scored 25, including four 3-pointers in the first half.

    He tried to be a momentum-grabber, too, but the closest he came to that was in the final 4.6 seconds of the first half, when he made a quick jumper that was followed by J.J. Barea’s desperation 3. (JJB, with seven-points worth of  driving derring-do in a 68-second span in the second quarter, did his best momentum-grab, too.)

     So the Mavs scored five points in 4.6 seconds. … but it ended up meaning very little.

     BUSTING THE MAVS’ ZONE: Oftentimes, when the Mavs use their 3-PG Attack, they drop into a zone defense to cover up for their lack of size.

    The plan backfired here, for a couple of reasons. One, when the Mavs went small, Cleveland countered by giving the struggling (on and off the floor) Delonte West a surprising 28 minutes. Now, that screwed up the organization’s plan to honor Zydrunas Ilgauskas for passing Danny Ferry for the most games played in team history; Big Z got the rare DNP-CD. But it freed West to score 10 points and notch 10 assists for his best performance of the season.

     The other part of why the zone didn’t work (and was scrapped more quickly than usual): The softest part of any zone (irrespective of the fact that Dallas often sticks Dirk at center) is the middle. The sweetest way to carve it up is to get the ball in the middle of it. So guess who Cleveland sent into the middle of Dallas’ zone?

     LeBron. From there, he created shots for others, was able to see over most of Dallas’ defenders, threatened to tear down the rim with one dribble … the ultimate zone-buster.

     THE ODDITY OF BENCH SCORING: The Mavs’ bench habitually contributes 50-or-so points, and it looked like Dallas would be on track for that here. In the first half alone, the Dallas bench was good for 30. But the Mavs finished with 41 … and good heavens, look at the Cavs’ supplementary-player contributions here: Varejao with 15 (and nine rebounds), Delonte West with 10 (and 10 assists), Jamario Moon with 13 points (and nine rebounds). … Cleveland finished with 40 bench points, one fewer than Dallas but plenty good enough. Oh, and add this in, too: The Cavs bench contributed 23 rebounds, 14 assists and just a pair of turnovers.

    One more note here, in terms of supplementary guys: Mo Williams starts, and he just isn’t this good. He hit all seven of his 3-point attempts for 25 points.

    HACK-A-SHAQ HACKS OFF SHAQ: The Mavs pulled out every old trick here, and while standard defensive techniques didn’t work (again, not because of O'Neal doing statistical damage but more because of his presence in the middle), the Hack-A-Shaq did. Late in the first half, Jason Terry approached O’Neal as both men were trotting toward the Cleveland offensive end. Terry hugged O’Neal, who angrily tossed him aside.

     The Hack-a-Shaq!

     Nobody uses it much anymore, but they ought to. Oh, it angers the big man. But when he got angry, he got a T. And when he went to the line, he missed both.

     LeBRON BY THE NUMBERS: There was no “Dirk-vs.-LeBron here; Nowitzki reached his average with 27 points, but LeBron was the story as he finished with 25 points, five rebounds and 12 assists. But h’s much more than that, of course. Still, one little sampling of the numbers paints quite a picture. After one quarter, he had 11 points, eight assists and four rebounds.

   “I LOVE JAMES SINGLETON”: That’s what Rick Carlisle said before the game as he raved about the professionalism of a guy who is buried deep on the bench, waiting his turn. …

    A turn that came in Cleveland.

    Singleton was part of the rotation of bodies who took a turn guarding Shaq. But most notably, he was a guy who Cleveland strategically decided to not cover. The Cavs seemed to do the same thing defensively with Kris Humphries.

    Next thing you know, there’s James Double-Doubleton finding himself lured into shooting a trio of 3’s..

    And next thing you know, there’s Kris Humphries finding himself lured into shooting 18-footers …

    MOVING ON: Jason Terry offered an approach that is really about the only approach for the Mavs, who will start anew on Monday with their 12-5 record.

    “We got a big game coming up against Philly at home,’’ Jet said. “We should focus on that. This one’s over with.’’

The Mavs-Cavs boxscore