Random dribbles after the visiting Cavaliers’ 102-81 blowout loss to the New York Knicks on Friday.
1. What a why to spend a Friday night in New York, huh? Not for the Cavs, who just don’t seem to match up with these Knicks and their new style of Tom Thibodeau-coached basketball.
2. What is Thibodeau basketball? It’s ugly. It’s physical. It’s challenging every pass, refusing to allow fast breaks, fending off easy baskets and often slowing the game to a crawl. It can squeeze the life out of you.
3. The Cavs (9-10) just haven’t been able to overcome that. They are now 1-2 against the Knicks. The first was an ugly loss at home. The second was an ugly win at home. The third was Friday night — the worst of them all.
4. These are the types of games no one wants to read about, at least not if you root for Cleveland. So we won’t spend a lot of time here.
5. There’s not much to write about, anyway. The offense was worse than it’s been at any point this season.
6. Darius Garland did have a nice night, scoring 24 points with 4-of-6 shooting on 3-pointers. Collin Sexton wasn’t bad, with 17 points and five assists. Jarrett Allen recorded 15 points and nine rebounds. As for everyone else? Meh.
7. Andre Drummond grabbed 15 rebounds … but scored just four points. Isaac Okoro mustered just four shots and ran into four trouble. Larry Nance Jr. returned from a sprained wrist, but just 1-of-9 from the field. Taurean Prince was 1-of-7 shooting.
8. So yeah, it was a night to forget.
9. On the bright side, the Cavs won’t see the Knicks again in regular season. On the downside, the Knicks (9-11) won the season series, which could become a factor if the teams are battling for a playoff spot. And they just might.
10. What was missing for the Cavs offensively? “Passing,” said coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
11. That was it. That was Bickerstaff’s answer. It wasn’t until he was asked another question that he could muster up a more-detailed explanation.
12. More Bickerstaff: “The way that their defense is set up is that they don’t trust that enough NBA teams will make the pass to the weak side of the floor. … Obviously, it works. But we gotta do a much better job of just passing to the open man.”
13. Bickerstaff is a proud coach and he has had every reason to take pride in his team. But after the game, he wore the exhausted look of a man who had just spent the previous 48 minutes tumbling in a clothes dryer.
14. But the first step to solving a problem is recognizing it. “It’s a simple thing,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s a simple adjustment to be made. It’s an easy thing for us to fix.”
15. Rookie guard Immanuel Quickley scored 25 points to lead the Knicks and is looking a lot like the steal of the draft. He was selected with the 25th overall pick. Second-year guard/forward R.J. Barrett added 24. The Knicks are clearly much-improved under Thibodeau.
16. Let’s end this here. For the Cavs, it just has to be a case of On To The Next One. That next one comes Sunday, also on the road, against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.
BOX SCORE | Knicks 102, Cavs 81
