Cavonometry Game 2: Halloween Heroics

Oct 31, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the second half against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center. Cleveland won 114-108 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

There is no way around it, the Cleveland Cavaliers have become the center of the basketball universe. Throughout this season, Nylon Calculus’ resident box score whisperer, Jeff Fogle, will be checking in on them regularly, looking for patterns and trends. This is Cavonometry.

To celebrate Halloween, LeBron James donned a cape and carried the Cleveland Cavaliers to 114-108 overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls.

LeBron in a Cape

42 minutes

30 shots (17 in the first half, 7 in second half, 6 in OT)

36 points

8 rebounds

4 steals

After making a slew of turnovers in the season opener Thursday, LeBron decided shooting was the better option. Nobody can intercept a shot! Thursday’s shot-to-turnover ratio was 15-8. Friday it was 30-3.

That worked until James ran out of gas in the second half. And, once he was out of gas, so were the Cavs. You can see that in their regulation score by quarters.

28-30-20-20

That’s 58 points in the first half, just 40 in the second half.

The tightly contested fourth quarter and overtime were compelling, but ugly. Neither team could be trusted with a lead. Derrick Rose was unable to finish for Chicago because he sprained an ankle earlier in the game. He scored 20 points in his 25 minutes. That led to an intense but sloppy back-and-forth until Cleveland took control in overtime and sealed the win with free throws.

*Chicago’s main offensive threat in crunch time was Kirk Hinrich (!). The Bulls really didn’t have much to go to when it mattered except hoping he made treys.

*Pau Gasol disappeared so glaringly on both sides of the floor late that the team may not have much confidence in him in future crunch times.

*Cleveland’s main offense outside of LeBron was grabbing offensive rebounds after a tired shooter missed. Tristan Thompson had 12 offensive boards on his way to 16 points. James and Thompson were a combined 21-of-43 from the floor (49%), while all other Cavs were 20-of-61 (33%).

*Kevin Love was barely on the radar offensively when it mattered. He was only 5-of-17 from the floor, and 1-of-6 on treys. Love was having an impact in other areas though, and was a much more positive influence than his off-shooting night makes it sound. Still, Cleveland is supposed to have multiple weapons when a game is on the line.

The final boxscore…

Cleveland 114, Chicago 108 (in overtime)

Regulation Score: Cleveland 98, Chicago 98

Two-Point Percentages: Cleveland 43%, Chicago 47%

Three-Pointers: Cleveland 3/15, Chicago 13/31

Free Throws: Cleveland 29/33, Chicago 13/17

Rebounds: Cleveland 52, Chicago 42

Turnovers: Cleveland 9, Chicago 19

A dramatic difference defined by the arc. Let’s look at that more closely…

Three-Point Scoring: Cleveland 9, Chicago 39

Scoring on 1’s and 2’s: Cleveland 105, Chicago 69

The Cavs kept attacking the basket and getting rewarded for their aggression, either on the first try or on a putback. Chicago turned the ball over when they attacked, and wasn’t able to coax whistles. The Bulls made up for that with long range shooting. Had Rose been able to play longer, those categories would have been less extreme, but still shaded in those directions.

We noted that poor bench scoring was an issue for Cleveland in their opener (Cavs lost 41-12). Let’s see what the backups did Friday with more minutes…

Bench Scoring: Cleveland 20, Chicago 31

Still an issue. Thompson’s hustle accounted for 16 of the 20. King James can’t be asked to carry the team on his back like this for 80 more games before the playoffs even start. The good news is that Cleveland’s offensive efficiency is impressive so far considering the unfamiliarity of the key components.

Market Report (thru 2 games)

*Cleveland (-13) lost to New York 95-90 (missed by 18)

*Cleveland (+4) won at Chicago 114-108 (covered by 4 in regulation, 10 on the night)

It’s unfair to compare early season rustiness to what we remember from the playoffs. But, “the two best teams in the East” have a long way to go to matching the best of the West based on what we witnessed Friday night. Cleveland’s next game will be on the road against a Western playoff team when they face Portland Tuesday evening (3 nights off!). Our next edition of Cavonometry will be after Cleveland’s Portland/Utah back-to-back is in the books on Thursday morning.

In the meantime, please check out the team logs for Cleveland and the rest of the NBA that are available exclusively here at Nylon Calculus. The default team is Atlanta when you first visit the link. Use the scroll bar to see ACTUAL game-by-game possession counts for your favorite team (or teams you’re trying to handicap or write about), and their ACTUAL offensive and defensive efficiency. Those stats by themselves do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to describing team characteristics (pace, strengths, weaknesses). Now they’re at your fingertips each and every day in an easy-to-read format.

We’ll pick up Cleveland’s boxscore travelogue on Thursday.