The fact that this was not the Cavaliers' worst loss of the season gives you an idea of how horrible this year has been. If you do not recall the 55-point beatdown courtesy of the Lakers in December, this game was a nice refresher. Admittedly, it was a bit lost in the fantastic first day of March Madness, but this game kind of stood out. The Cavaliers went over 9 minutes without a field goal and the Trail Blazers jumped out to a modest 33-4 lead. It didn't get much better from there. Nobody played well for the Cavaliers and everything went right for Portland.
Try to fathom that. After ten and a half minutes into the first quarter, the Cavaliers managed to score only 4 points. Thankfully, Cleveland unleashed their dominance and poured it on to finish the quarter with 12 points. I would liken the Cavaliers' performance to The Situation's "comedy routine" at the roast of Donald Trump. It was horrific and unbearable. However, for some reason you couldn't turn away.Alright, you probably could have turned away if you wanted to, as there was plenty of competitive basketball being played on various other networks. The Cavs never led and Portland's biggest lead was 44. To put that into perspective, it was not until there was 2:30 left in the 3rd quarter that Cleveland managed to put 44 points on the scoreboard. At that point, the Blazers had doubled them up with 88. LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 20 points and 11 rebounds and was +37 in 29 minutes of play. Gerald Wallace contributed to the dominance as well with 17 points and 6 assists. Cleveland had 6 assists, as a team. Samardo Samuels was the only Cavs starter with an assist.
I don't know if this game requires any in depth analysis, those simple stats speak for themselves. The fact that the Cavaliers were held to 11 points in the 3rd quarter, and were out-rebounded 45-29 pretty much sums up the game. If you're searching for an explanation, I'll offer you this. The Cavs were on the second night of back-to-backs on a West Coast road trip against a revitalized Portland team. No matter the circumstances, I still find it unacceptable that I'm not sure if the Cavaliers would be worthy of a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, despite being an actual NBA team.
This game marked Baron Davis' return to the team after missing several games due to the death of his grandmother. He was a non-factor, as were all of the Cavs, contributing just 3 points in 15 minutes. Daniel Gibson and Ramon Sessions "led" Cleveland with 12 and 14 points, respectively. If you missed this one, don't bother watching it on DVR. Just enjoy the March Madness and root for the Ohio St. Buckeyes while the Cavaliers are off until tomorrow night when they play the Clippers. Try to focus on the top-seeded Buckeyes, or daydream about Kyrie Irving or Harrison Barnes in Wine and Gold. That's what I'll be doing as I try to block out the Cavaliers 6:18 assist to turnover ratio.