Postgame Pindowns: Cavs tame early rampage by Bulls for the home win

The Cavaliers are truly living day by day with new situations, matchups, and lineups. With their only active point guard, Jose Calderon, not playing, Cleveland had to get creative. J.R. Smith also starts for the first time since Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals. Dwyane Wade comes off the bench for the first time since January 27th this year when he played for Chicago. As the Cavs play host to the Bulls, here are some pindowns thoughts for your thoughts.

1. Stretched quite thin at guard positions, coach Tyronn Lue took the first quarter to experiment with the Cavalier bigs. He assigned ball handling duties to LeBron James and now starter J.R. Smith. The Cavs struggled to find easy shots without a primary ball-handler, but they shot much better than the first quarter against the Orlando Magic. Defensively, while the surplus of size makes switching easier, the unique lineups led to miscommunication and another early lead for the road team.
2. With less time with starters this season and being the only guard in the starting lineup, Smith struggled early on the communication side of things. The floor spread was noticeable, as the lack of a ball handler still resulted in open looks thanks to the skip passing of James.
3. Oh hey, Kay Felder.
4. Dwyane Wade seemed more comfortable as the point guard for the second unit. He was patient and the decisions he made seemed to come to him more naturally. He even knocked down a vintage turnaround fadeaway for his first shot attempt. Still not sure how he’ll play alongside Derrick Rose.
5. Overall, the first half was similar to the Cavs’ first half against Orlando, minus the atrocious shooting. The inconsistency in lineups is definitely impacting the starting lineup.
6. Cavs showed some chemistry in the second half with a commitment to defense. In the first four minutes of the 3rd quarter, they forced three turnovers. The result was some easy shots and their first lead since the win over Milwaukee.
7. The Cavs split the third quarter point guard responsibilities between James and Wade. The starters that began the game were broken up into a series of different lineups. The biggest positive was the amount of rest it gave James, Love, and Smith heading into the fourth.
8. It’s starting to come together on how coach Lue is interchanging starters and reserves. He’s played a healthy amount of Jeff Green and Iman Shumpert to fill lanes created by the penetration of Wade and James as well as the floor spacing of Kyle Korver, Jae Crowder, Love, and Smith. By the end of the third period, eight Cavaliers have played at least 15 minutes.
9. Ultimately, the Cavs needed familiarity to get today’s win as well as make slower progress toward incorporating the new guys. They closed the fourth quarter with four starters from last season (Smith-James-Thompson-Love). James found five of his 13 assists in the fourth with this lineup.

Cleveland goes up to 3-1 as the Cavs are set to take on D’Angelo Russell and his Brooklyn Nets tomorrow. Look forward to more Postgame Pindowns then!