Looking back at the last 5ish minutes of the Clippers/Cavs game

Watching the game live I was pretty frustrated with the blown lead and the reffing last night, so I wanted to take a look back at the game to rewatch a few plays. I decided to talk about it since I’m procrastinating. I’d like to add the disclaimer that I’m no expert on the rules or the game of basketball, just a fan wanting to chat cavs and make observations. I’m sure some of my analysis will be biased and some will be wrong.

* 4:50 — Mobley called for a foul on Mann, its challenged and upheld. 111-100 after Mann’s free throws
*Pretty close, I think Mobley has some contact on the wrist.*

* 4:37 — DG fires a laser to K-Love who gets fouled. Love hits 1 of 2. 112-100
*Nice find by DG.*

* 4:19 — Mobley called for foul on Powell’s reverse layup. 112-102
*This one seemed pretty clean, but Mobley definitely gets a bit into his body.*

* 4:03 — Garland passes to Mitchell, who passes back to DG. DG finds a good lane and makes a nice pass to a pretty open Levert. Levert gets called for an offensive foul on the 3 point attempt.
*I was pretty upset with this one live. We didn’t get the best look on the replay. After watching it a couple times, I can see it a bit more now. Levert lands after the 3 and leans into the defender a bit. Not a ton, but he definitely lands and leans left a little bit. I don’t even know if he needed to lean, the defender might have made contact either way but who knows.*

* 3:46 — KLove gets a rebound with Mann crashing into his back.
*I’m surprised there was no whistle on this play with as hard as Mann came crashing in. Would have been a couple free throws.*

* 3:17 — Reggie Jackson takes and misses a 3 a couple steps behind the arc.
*Not super well defended, considering Reggie’s range this game. But it didn’t fall.*

* 3:24 — Mitchell brings ball upcourt, finds a good spot in the lane and dishes the ball out to a pretty open KLove.
*Good look but it didn’t drop for Kev.*

* 2:48 — Garland brings ball upcourt, took a stepback 3 w/ 2 seconds left in the shot clock and missed.
*I think this possession is where I started to notice our fatigue the most. Mitchell comes upcourt and stands in one corner and doesn’t move. Levert is standing in the other corner stretching. Neither KLove nor JAllen set a screen or anything. I don’t think DG had much else he could do there besides take an iso stepback 3 with the lack of movement on offense*

* 2:50 — LeVert gets the OREB. Gets it to Mitchell who gets double teamed. Loose ball foul called on Levert against Powell. 112-104
*I think a lot of times this won’t get a whistle, but Levert seems to have hooked him under the left arm a bit.*

* 2:21 — Garland passes to Mitchell passes to Levert with a pretty decent look in the corner. Doesn’t drop. *Better off-ball movement on this play.*

* 2:15 — JA with a steal on Paul George.
*Gotta love seeing the big guy pick PGs pocket.*

* 2:02 — Garland with a good drive, layup no good.
*Good drive, good screens. Might have been able to find Mitchell in the corner, but DG got himself a good look there for sure.*

* 1:57 — Levert called for Blocking on Powell. 112-106
*I think Levert was still shuffling his feet, good effort though. KLove needs to give these guys some charging workshops.*

* [1:43](https://youtu.be/cDgywGbEDsQ?t=505) — Mitchell brings ball upcourt. Passes to DG. DG passes back to Mitchell and it gets stolen by Mann.
*Careless play, maybe would have liked to see Mitchell be more aggressive with his touch.*

* 1:41 — Mann hangs on net and doesn’t get called for it during his slam. 112-108
*Whatever, sucks there was no call but Mann deserved the points on that possession after the hustle steal. I’m not mad about it. Surprised at the lack of “make-up call” after this*

* 1:24 — Mitchell brings ball up-court, finds DG in the corner who loses possession and fouls trying to recover. 112-110 after free throws.
*Dunno what happened here to DG, maybe he was getting gassed but a careless turnover followed by free points for them.*

* 1:09 — Garland finds Allen in the paint. No call on Allen’s shot.
*With as many whistles there are in the quarter I can’t believe this was a no-call. Tons of contact.*

* [1:02](https://youtu.be/cDgywGbEDsQ?t=517) — Powell with the clutch layup and-one. Misses a free-throw. 112-112
*Mitchell getting called for a foul here is crazy. But Powell missed the free-throw anyway and we got the board so it was pretty inconsequential.*

* 0:42 — DG fires a stepback 3 and misses.
*Mann was playing good coverage on Mitchell trying to deny him the ball. DG didn’t wanna force that and turn it over again. Nobody was setting screens and there wasn’t off-ball movement. He had a little time on the shot-clock, but he didn’t have a ton he could do with the stagnant offense that possession either.*

* [0:37](https://youtu.be/cDgywGbEDsQ?t=528) — Okoro fouls PG for an and-one. 115-112 Clippers.
*Clutch play from PG13. He looked really good this game. Okoro definitely made contact there, PG was just able to finish through it.*

* [0:29](https://youtu.be/cDgywGbEDsQ?t=544) — Mitchell gets inbounds, finds an open Mobley after the screen. 115-114.
*I don’t know enough late-game strategy to know if we should have went for a 3 here or not, but that was a good find and a wide open Mobley for his 26th point of the night.*

* 0:15 — Morris fouled by Mobley who fouls out. 117-114 Clippers after free throws.
*Very surprised that they didnt call a foul on Levert or DG when they were swarming reggie Jackson.

* 0:11 — DG fouled by Jackson, makes 1 of 2 free throws. 117-115 clippers.
*Gotta make clutch free throws, they made all of theirs. Smart play to deny the 3 by Ty Lue and the Clippers.*

* [0:04](https://youtu.be/cDgywGbEDsQ?t=560) — Mitchell fouled on 3 point play.
*PG didn’t even have much contact there. Maybe a bit on the wrist, but it looked more like a “high-five” kinda situation. Super close on the intentional miss rebound.*

Some takeaways:

1. This took a lot longer than I expected.
2. I was upset about less calls than I thought I would be. The Allen shot at 1:09 was frustrating. The Levert offensive foul call on the 3 was pretty upsetting too, but I can at least see what they were looking at now. The foul on Powell at 1:02 was questionable.
3. The clippers put themselves in a position to get to the line a lot more. We settled for stepback 3’s and didn’t push into the lane nearly as much as they did. The refs rewarded them for it.
4. Terrance Mann really played good hustle defense and was a pest during that last 5 minutes.
5. Mitchell definitely had more touches than I though. I saw a lot of sentiments that he was “iced” and “DG tried to hero ball,” but Mitchell definitely had his opportunities. He was also catching double teams and seeing a lot of good defense played on him to deny him the ball.
6. In just over 2 minutes, Levert had 3 fouls. The offensive 3p foul, getting tangled up with Powell, and a blocking foul on Powell. Some of these were questionable, but gotta tighten up that defense in these clutch situations.
7. The guys were exhausted. Second night on a back to back. I know the clippers were on a back to back as well, but they at least got to sleep in their own beds. Lack of ball movement and screens down the stretch that we often see out of this cavs team.
8. I think this is a good loss. It’s easy to blame the refs, but there were some pretty clear mistakes from several of our guys tonight in crunch time. You don’t get to be a true contender without taking some bumps and lumps and losses and bruises. These are the kinds of games you study and analyze and try to figure out what works best for you and what went wrong.
9. I agree, Go Cavs

edit: added a few timestamps to highlights