CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t really have anything to really play for. Home court in the first round is secured, and they’re better off not moving up from the fourth seed to the third. Additionally, they’re facing the Atlanta Hawks for two of their final three games — their likely first-round opponent.
Those facts didn’t stop them from going all out and winning a back-and-forth game 122-116 on Wednesday.
This group with James Harden is still new. They need these reps.
“As talented as the guys that came in are, you still have to be able to have that chemistry and have that bond,” Donovan Mitchell said after pouring in 31 points. “That takes time.”
They also need experience in high-leverage games together. Even though there wasn’t much on the line for Cleveland, knowing how close the playoffs are and how well the Hawks are playing made this the perfect opportunity for a dress rehearsal.
Before the game, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson was asked if he would go with a vanilla game plan against a potential first-round opponent. His answer was no. And the game showed that he meant it.
The Cavs pulled out several wrinkles that you usually only see in the playoffs. They decided to have Harden guard opposing center Onyeka Okongwu. They also drastically cheated off of Dyson Daniels and Jonathan Kuminga defensively in an effort to clog the paint. These are things that you’d expect to see in Game 1 of a playoff series.
Harden guarding Okongwu made sense and is worth revisiting in the playoffs.
Harden has enough strength to handle bigs in the post. He’s not going to get bullied for easy baskets. And hunting him out for post-ups gets you away from what you normally do, which is what happened here.
Okongwu put up 18 points on 7-10 shooting. Those are good numbers. However, the Hawks lost the 33 minutes he played by as many points. The offense wasn’t able to establish the same rhythm as they had an 83.6 offensive rating with Okongwu on the floor. That’s an absolute win for the Cavs.
The idea of using Harden to defend a big didn’t happen overnight. Atkinson has been looking at this for some time now. He mentioned last week that he’s been watching tape of Harden defensively, seeing how he’s guarded fours and fives in the past. That, presumably, inspired him to break that out here. This test run will likely encourage him to keep doing so.
The issue comes with figuring out the other matchups in front of Harden.
The Cavs tried a couple of variations before finding something that worked. Putting Evan Mobley on Jalen Johnson and Dean Wade on CJ McCollum slowed Atlanta down at the start of the third quarter, allowing the Cavs to get back into the game.
For as good of defenders as Mobley, Wade, and Jarrett Allen are, entirely flipping where everyone is on the court at the start of the possession does present some issues. Particularly regarding staying in front of Atlanta’s best scorers: Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
To the Cavs credit, they did a decent job with both, but more so with Johnson. Alexander-Walker did put up a team-high 25 points.
The Cavs’ game plan for Johnson was simple: make him a jump shooter and force him to finish around the basket. Cleveland mostly gave Johnson — who came into this game shooting 35.4% from three — clean looks from the outside. He didn’t make them pay, going 0-5 beyond the arc.
Around the rim is where the Cavs made it difficult. Johnson went just 2-6 on shots in the restricted area and 3-8 on attempts in the paint overall. This was due to how many defenders came over to help on his drives, and from making a team-wide effort to not let the Hawks attack in the open court.
Look at how well the defense — particularly Mobley — was able to help on these.
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The Cavs were able to turn the Hawks’ biggest advantage against them.
Atlanta is first in the league in points added in transition. On Wednesday, the Cavs held them in the sixth percentile for points added in transition.
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder spoke pregame about how he wants his team to continue playing fast in the playoffs. They still played their style; the Cavs just did it better.
Cleveland — who’s been a much more half-court oriented since the Harden trade — was in the 84th percentile in points added in transition this game. They did this by running off steals and defensive rebounds.
Allen still doesn’t look quite right. He mentioned when he returned to the lineup after his knee injury that he still wasn’t 100%. That was clear again as he didn’t appear to have the same burst we’ve come to expect from him.
Atkinson didn’t want to speculate postgame about Allen’s health, but he acknowledged it’s something the team is monitoring down the stretch. Even if the Cavs don’t rest their starters in the last two games, Allen might be the one exception to that.
Mitchell’s 31 points lifted the Cavs. He did this by relentlessly attacking inside as he went 8-11 on shots in the paint and generated six attempts at the free-throw line.
Earlier in the season, Mitchell mentioned that he was trying to keep from attacking the rim as much — instead opting to use the floater more. His goal was to be efficient with his scoring, but also with how he moved on the court, opting to use his athleticism only when needed.
The governor is off now.
“It’s that time,” Mitchell said. “If you play like that for 82 games, y’all probably won’t see me in a week or two weeks. It’s hard to do, especially at my size. So you gotta find ways to adapt.”
Mitchell has found ways to adapt and is a more complete scorer because of it. He’s completed a career-high 54% of his looks between four and 14 feet of the hoop. That’s good enough for the 97th percentile in the league. For comparison, he connected on just 39% of those shots two seasons ago. Most of that improvement comes from his floater.
Teams in the playoffs can often take away what you do best. Even though the Indiana Pacers didn’t keep Mitchell from scoring last postseason, they made him pay for every drive to the rim by continually knocking him down. This wore on him to the point that Mitchell didn’t have much left at the end of Game 2, when his team collapsed and essentially lost the series.
We don’t know how this will look in the postseason, but the changes he’s made to his game all season should allow him more counters when teams load up to stop him at the rim.
The Hawks didn’t have an answer for Mobley. He punished their wings as he put up 22 points on 8-15 shooting while going 6-10 at the free-throw line. This included converting 8-12 in the paint.
“The one thing I loved tonight was his post-ups,” Mitchell said. “He was trying to still get down to the rim as opposed to the fade that we’ve talked about for years. He’s being assertive.”
That assertiveness showed up most on the glass, where Mobley tied a career high with 19 rebounds.
“That was huge,” Atkinson said. “It’s usually a mentality change when these jumps happen. I think he switched it on.”
Atkinson still believes in Mobley’s upside.
Before the season, there was some discussion about Mobley leaping into the periphery of the MVP conversation after making the All-NBA second team last season. That didn’t happen. He struggled to adjust offensively to an increased role at the beginning of the year. He’s righted the ship and is playing much more similarly to last season now.
Even though this year hasn’t exactly gone as planned, there’s still reason to buy into Mobley reaching that tier.
“I believe desperately in Evan Mobley,” Atkinson said. “I think he’s got everything. He’s got all the tools and does it on both ends. I love [how] Koby [Altman] always says he’s a winning player. He’s coming into the NBA, and he’s won right off the bat. Not a lot of guys can say that.”
This was a statement win that showed what this team is capable of in the playoffs. They blitzed the second-best defense in the league since the All-Star break to the tune of 44 points in the third quarter. Even though they weren’t able to keep that pace going, it shows how immensely talented this group is, even if the consistency isn’t there yet.
“We’ve never wavered, right? Mitchell said. “I think, no offense to y’all, I think y’all have wavered on us a few times.”
We have wavered, and who could blame us?
Injuries, franchise-changing trades, and overall uneven effort have produced some drastic swings. But in the end, the Cavs have still found a way to grab 51 wins, and have an opportunity to get two more. They believe in this team and what they can accomplish in the postseason.
“I’ve always said, I’m very confident in this group,” Mitchell said.
In just over a week, we’ll start to find out whether that confidence is justified.
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