CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cavaliers have talked a lot about process and practice lately, about learning on the fly and figuring it out as they go with four new rotation players added early this month.
In the Cavs' 129-123 win over Brooklyn Tuesday, here's what the new guys did:
George Hill scored a season high 26 points, including two foul shots with 13 seconds left for a four-point lead.
Rodney Hood scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a clutch jumper and free throw with 40.2 seconds left.
Jordan Clarkson scored 14 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:04 left for a 120-119 advantage.
Larry Nance finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. He knocked down a 15-footer with 1:32 left to tie the score at 117.
The Nets are now 22-games under .500 and have lost nine of their last 10 games. But coach Tyronn Lue was happy with what he saw Tuesday, particularly out of the four players the Cavs traded for on Feb. 8.
"I just want to see what I'm working with," Lue said. "I really don't know the guys that much, that well. Just want to see in big moments, pressure situations, how they perform. They performed well and they've been performing well."
Lue closed the game with LeBron James and the four new guys on the court, though he used Cedi Osman out of timeouts for defense. Lue said he stayed away from JR Smith and Tristan Thompson down the stretch because they had both been out since there were four minutes left in the third quarter.
James, who slipped to second in the NBA in fourth quarter scoring with 7.7 points per quarter, closed Tuesday's game with eight points, five rebounds, and three assists in the final frame.
He said seeing his new teammates play so well down the stretch is what matters.
"Anytime you get a close game, no matter what part of the season we're in, no matter the competition, to see guys rise to the occasion you know what can happen later on," James said. "And every guy that was on the floor tonight at the end of the game felt just as comfortable as the start of the game and that's definitely great to know."
Lue kids Osman for fouls
One game after James said NBA officials protect jumpshooters instead of drivers like him, the Cavs spent a considerable amount of time complaining about the calls.
At halftime, the Nets had shot 24 foul shots to the Cavs' seven, but it evened out by game's end.
Cedi Osman was called four five fouls and Nance four -- Nance has only had one game since joining the Cavs where he was whistled for less than that.
"We gotta play through the officiating," Lue said. "You're gonna get calls, sometimes you're not. It's just part of the game. And it's a tough game to officiate, especially with all the flopping guys are doing. How strong and powerful Bron is, so, it's a tough game to officiate. We've got to play through the officiating. We don't get calls, we gotta get back on defense because other teams going down the floor, they're scoring the basketball. So, you know, it happens, it's part of the game and that's all I'm gonna say."
Lue yelled to Osman in the locker room afterward: "Cedi, you lead the NBA in fouls per minute."
New defensive coverage for Cavs
The Nets shot a blistering .537 from the field and the Cavs scored two points on fastbreaks, so this was not the kind of game Lue wants to see from his defense.
Except, he said, the Cavs tried some new defensive coverages, switching everything, with all five players (like the Warriors do in the playoffs), which he said led to some mishaps.
"I thought our energy and effort was there," Lue said. "They got behind us on the roll a few times. We just gotta clean it up and continue to keep working on it, but it got us back in the game in that first half."
Cleveland trailed by nine in the first quarter.
Rodney Hood: Silent assassin
Lue had talked for two days about getting the ball into Hood's hands more, and then challenging Hood to do something with it.
Hood took eight shots in the fourth quarter and made five (which counts as doing something the ball in his hands). But he had help.
"I was just trying to blow his man up on screens," Nance said. "When I was running up setting a screen I was really trying to pick his man and make sure he would have a big man going downhill."
Hill, who played with Hood on the Utah Jazz last season, said Hood is "the silent assassin.
"Don't say much, just lets his game speak for itself," Hill said. "He's trying to find his way just like all of us and you will see him starting to open up more once he gets his rhythm down."
What has Clarkson learned about James over these last few weeks?
"That he cool. He cool," Clarkson said. "Talking to everybody and he's open. That's definitely cool to have in a superstar player and leader of the team."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The overall percentages don't point to a skilled 3-point shooter. In the case of new addition Jordan Clarkson, it's quite the opposite actually.
A career 33 percent long-range bomber, the 25-year-old combo guard has never finished better than 34.7 percent -- a mark Clarkson set in his second season with the Lakers while taking 320 attempts. Prior to being traded on Feb. 8, part of a wacky day of activity for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Clarkson was connecting on just 32.4 percent from beyond the arc.
But the Cavaliers' research -- going back a ways, when he first popped on their radar, even before that February day -- tells a different story.
It's led to the belief that in this system, on this team, in this particular role, Clarkson can be a respectable 3-point shooter. And thus far, even though it's an extremely small sample size and regression could be coming, the Cavs front office has been proven right. Not only is Clarkson shooting 52.3 percent from the field, but also he's hitting 40.7 percent from beyond the arc.
When contemplating the deal with Los Angeles, the Cavaliers honed in on Clarkson's catch-and-shoot numbers. They believed the numerous pull-up triples he was forced to attempt with the Lakers, who were in desperate need of his scoring and shot creation, brought his numbers down to an unsatisfactory level.
In Los Angeles, Clarkson was a paltry 19-of-77 (24.6 percent) on pull-up 3's. Meanwhile, he was 48-of-126 (38 percent) on catch-and-shoot tries.
They thought that catch-and-shoot skill would pair well alongside LeBron James, that Clarkson would have even more open looks in Cleveland than ever before.
In some ways, Clarkson's numbers with the Cavs match what he did in Los Angeles, as he's made just 3-of-11 (22.2 percent) on those pull-up 3-pointers, which have never been part of his offensive repertoire, while canning 8-of-16 (50 percent) on catch-and-shoots.
"From the summertime, I've been working on that," Clarkson told cleveland.com following the game. "In LA, I thought I was going to play full time at the 2-guard position so during the summer I worked a lot on that. Catch and shoot, coming off pindowns, corner fades and all that stuff. I was getting ready for that 2-guard position and it set me up for this success here."
It also paved the way for his biggest moment with the Cavaliers and allowed head coach Tyronn Lue to have enough confidence in Clarkson's outside jumper to keep 3-point specialist JR Smith on the bench with the Cavs in need of a hoop in a one-possession game late.
With a little more than a minute remianing, after James drove to the basket and missed his shot, he grabbed the rebound before snapping the ball to George Hill on the wing. In the midst of his best game this season, Hill passed up the look, as he saw the defender closing out hard and instead quickly tossed it to Clarkson, who canned the 28-footer before celebrating with his stick-a-fork-in-them taunt.
"I feel like he's got the confidence in me to knock those shots down," Clarkson said. "Kyle (Korver) was in the game. Anybody could've got them shots. Rod Hood was in the game, G Hill. I just happened to be open and made it."
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As much as the Cavs have raved about Clarkson's attack mentality, admitting they need to put in more sets to bring out his aggressiveness, they have quickly realized he can be just as effective playing off the ball. A number of the staff members, including those in the front office, can quickly point out his 3-point percentage when playing way.
Even Lue, who isn't always fond of numbers, smiled when asked about them at practice on Monday. He then went through the numerous shots that stand out to him.
"(Against San Antonio) he had three 3's in a row when he was off the ball," Lue said. "In Memphis, LeBron hit him a few times off the ball. If you think about it in Boston, those three plays we had in pick-and-roll, with single-side bump he got three 3's so he's great playing off the ball."
Now they can add another -- the clutch 3-pointer against Brooklyn -- to that list. Not what many would expect from a career 33-percent marksman.
I mean, that's what (matters)," James said about the new guys, including Clarkson, stepping up in pressure moments. "Anytime you get a close game, no matter what part of the season we're in, no matter the competition, to see guys rise to the occasion you know what can happen later on. And every guy that was on the floor tonight at the end of the game felt just as comfortable as the start of the game and that's definitely great to know."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It was close, perhaps too close, but LeBron James and the Cavaliers scored one in the win column and another for draft night.
James delivered his fourth triple double in February (much more on that in a minute) and the Cavs beat the Brooklyn Nets 129-123 on Tuesday night at The Q. Cleveland owns the Nets' No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft.
James finished with 31 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists for his 12th triple double this season. He tallied 13 all last season, a career high.
Rodney Hood contributed 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a clutch jumper and free throw with 40.2 seconds remaining for a 123-121 advantage. James' two foul shots with 16.9 seconds remaining put the Cavs ahead by four.
George Hill, who scored a season high 26, knocked in two foul shots with 13 seconds left to restore a four-point advantage.
Jordan Clarkson scored 14 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:04 left off an offensive rebound by James and pass by Hill that put Cleveland ahead 120-119.
"Good read, good pass, good find and good shot," coach Tyronn Lue said.
James averaged a triple double for the month of February (27 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 10.5 apg in 10 games). Smaller sample size because of the All-Star break, yes, but James has never averaged a triple double for an entire month.
"My teammates are making shots, one, and I couldn't do that without them," James said. "They actually have to make the shot for it to become an assist. Rebounding for me has always been instinctual. I'm not a big box-out guy, I've always kind of used my instincts and seeing the ball if it's coming off the rim, how it's coming off the backboard or off the guy's hands and just try to use my athleticism to get the rebounds.
"The scoring part is something I've kind of ... if I can get two layups a quarter or three layups a quarter then I'm going to get over 10 points a game. Scoring has always been last for me, I've never looked at myself as a scorer. But to know the history of the game and seeing the guys that put up triple-doubles on a regular -- from Jason Kidd to Magic Johnson to Oscar Robertson to Russell Westbrook, you can throw my name in there as well."
"It takes a lot of energy. But if you're built for it, you're built for it."
This was also James' 926th regular-season game with at least 20 points, tying Michael Jordan for fourth all time. He became the 11th player in NBA history with 8,000 career assists.
Hill was 3-of-17 shooting in two games with the Cavs at The Q, and recovered with a 9-of-17 effort Tuesday. Kyle Korver added 18 points off the bench. Jeff Green missed his first game this season. The culprit was lower back soreness.
Former Ohio State star D'Angelo Russell paced the Nets with 25 points. Caris LeVert added 18 points off the bench and DeMarre Carroll chipped in with 16.
At virtually no point did Cleveland have any room to breathe in this one against a team it's beaten now 10 straight times at The Q.
Cedi Osman buried a jumper at the buzzer from the foul line to cut the Cavs' deficit to 29-25 at the end of one quarter. Carroll raced out to 10 points in the first 51/2 minutes; the Cavs trailed by as many as nine.
A sign of Cleveland's general lack of focus early on -- Tristan Thompson was whistled for a three-second violation on a play the Cavs drew up during the timeout.
In the second quarter, Korver tripped while dribbling the ball up the court and fumbled to Russell.
With 9:16 left, Quincy Acy put his shoulder into Clarkson on Clarkson's way to the hoop, knocking him a mile off course. Clarkson didn't think to highly of it, and Acy was assessed a flagrant-1 foul after video review.
Clarkson missed both free throws.
Korver got it together with four 3s, James scored 10 and Cleveland actually built a 56-48 lead with 2:52 left in the half, but the Nets closed the first half leading 61-60 on Crabbe's 20-footer with 2.1 seconds left. Brooklyn shot 24 free throws to the Cavs' seven in the first half.
LeVert's jumper at the buzzer sent the game to the fourth with the Cavs ahead, 94-91. James had already corralled seven rebounds and eight assists, giving him enough to average a triple double for the month.
The Cavs host the Philadelphia 76ers at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
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