Basketball Daily Dose: Dose: Treymond Green

The Cavs got their behinds handed to them during Sunday’s 110-77 blowout loss to the Warriors, and after suffering back-to-back blowout losses by a combined 48 points to the defending champs, it’s looking like the conclusion of the 2015-16 season will again end in disappointment for Mr. LeBron James. Jeff Van Gundy said it best during the Game 2 telecast, stating that the Cavs simply cannot defend the Warriors in the same way that the Warriors can defend the Cavs; basketball is a game of matchups, and the Cavs just don’t seem to have the answers for the Warriors’ conundrum.

Treymond Green & The Splash Bros

Stephen Curry was only needed for 25 minutes during the Dubs’ convincing win, and he ended his night with 18 points, nine boards, four assists, four triples and four turnovers. Klay Thompson also had a solid Game 2 performance, producing 17 points, two rebounds, five assists, four trey-bombs and two steals in 31 minutes; but it was Draymond Green who stole the show going off for 28 points, seven boards, five assists, five 3-pointers, one steal and just one turnover in 34 minutes.

Green was en fuego all night long, and so far he’s probably been the biggest matchup problem for Cleveland on both ends of the floor. He has smothered Kevin Love on post-up attempts, abused Kyrie Irving on switches, and during Game 2, he went to work against whomever Cleveland put in front of him on the offensive end (even hitting a pretty ridiculous and uncharacteristic step-back triple over Richard Jefferson). The Cavs have decided to leave Green open on the perimeter while focusing most of their attention on The Splash Brothers, and Green has made them pay dearly, knocking down a ridiculous 50 percent of his 3-point attempts through the first two games of the series. Let’s take a look at his shot chart:

If the Cavs hope to have any chance of climbing out of their current 0-2 hole, they’ll need to abandon the current defensive philosophies regarding Green and do a much better job at closing out on him at the 3-point arc.

From Bad to Worse

As if being humiliated for a second consecutive game wasn’t enough torment for Believe-land, things went from bad to worse when Kevin Love went to the locker room early in the third quarter with what was eventually revealed to be a concussion. Love took a really hard hit to the head via Harrison Barnes’ elbow during the second quarter, and while he was initially able to play trough it, the concussion-like symptoms began to emerge after halftime. Love has officially been diagnosed with a concussion, so he’ll need to go through the league mandated concussion protocol testing before he’s able to return to the court. If there’s any positive here it’s that Game 3 isn’t until Wednesday, giving Love a full two days to recover, but if he’s lost for any amount of time that will obviously be a significant blow to Cleveland’s already slim odds of pulling off a comeback. Head coach Tyronn Lue said after the game that Love is currently being listed as day-to-day, and we’re sure to get plenty of updates on his status in the intervening days leading up to Wednesday’s tip.

If Love isn’t cleared in time for Game 3, I’d expect LeBron James and Tristan Thomas to play as close to 48 minutes as possible, with guys like Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson also seeing a decent uptick in minutes. It’s worth noting that Timofey Mozgov did play the entire fourth quarter with Love unavailable, but I’d say that had a lot more to do with the lopsided score than Lue seriously considering Mozzy as a potential Love replacement. In Mozgov’s 12 minutes, he registered five points, three boards, one steal, two turnovers and three personal fouls. Just like Mozgov was not the answer to the Golden State equation last season, he will not be the answer this year, and I don’t see him earning more minutes than Frye even if Love is indeed unavailable for Game 3.

King James and…

LeBron James was the only Cavalier to show up to Game 2, registering 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting to go with eight boards, nine assists, four steals, one triple and an unfortunate game-high seven turnovers through 34 minutes of action. James tried to shoulder the blame for Cleveland’s loss after the game, discussing how he needs to be more careful with the rock, and while that’s true to a certain extent, he really didn’t receive much help at all from his teammates. Kyrie Irving was ineffective during his 33 minutes on the court, going 5-of-14 from the field on his way to 10 points, three rebounds, one assist, three steals and three turnovers. Love didn’t do much before exiting with a concussion, tallying five points, three boards, one 3-pointer, one steal and one turnover in 21 minutes; J.R. Smith was again invisible during his 33 minutes of action, attempting just six shots; and Tristan Thompson had just one more rebound (five) than fouls (four) during his 19 minutes of floor time.

The Cleveland reserves also failed to offer much help with Matthew Dellavedova scoring all seven of his points during garbage time and Iman Shumpert scoring three points while playing some fairly lame defense during his 20 minutes of action. Richard Jefferson was a lone bright spot off the Cavs bench, scoring 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go with five boards, one steal, one block and one turnover, but the production from the 35-year-old is more of a testament to the lameness of the Cavs’ starters rather than the play of the veteran. If the Cavs want to get back in this series, they’re going to need a much better all-around effort from just about everyone, particularly, Kyrie, who has posted a horrendous plus/minus rating of minus-35 during his 71 mintues of floor time.

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