CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs (59-14) are on their sixth three-game win streak of the season after dropping the San Antonio Spurs, 124-116, on Thursday at Rocket Arena.
Why do the Cavs have over 50 wins when leading entering the fourth quarter? Because they continuously go into the final period with momentum. Thursday was no exception.
After the Spurs used both of their challenges to reverse calls and earn trips to the free throw line — eventually securing an 81-79 lead in the third quarter — the Cavs needed a response.
Donovan Mitchell delivered, orchestrating the offense with poise and precision. Driving into the lane, he found Sam Merrill cutting from the opposite corner for an easy layup. On the next possession, Merrill spotted up from the wing and drilled a three. The sharpshooter finished with 13 points, including three triples.
“We trust him on both ends,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said about Merrill. “It’s not just the offense and like what you said, he’s generating offense even when he’s not shooting. He runs all those screens. He cuts. He just turns the defense up.
“Quite honestly, that’s why we started him against Portland the other night, because we knew we needed to have more actions than just pick and roll with DG and Donovan. So he gives you that. He gives you that guy that’s off the ball, and he just runs around and makes things happen.”
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And then Mitchell had to put the exclamation point on the period going into the final stretch. He took off into the middle of the painted area and soared to the rafters for the emphatic slam to get the crowd hyped heading into the fourth. Mitchell finished with 25 points, a career-high 14 assists and eight rebounds.
“It changed the game. Because we started out poorly,” Atkinson said of Mitchell’s facilitating. “[Mitchell’s] stint was not good, his first stint, and in that second stint he came in, they packed the paint, I mean, extreme paint packing and he just started spraying the ball around. Once he got it out of their tight shell, then we started making decisions behind that, and that kind of broke the game out. So his understanding, his reading of the game is elite. It changed the game.”
It was the momentum swing the Cavs needed after a stalled third period with three stoppages due to challenges and foul reviews, including an official review that led to a flagrant foul call on De’Andre Hunter and a five-point swing for the Spurs.
But San Antonio, a team with nothing to lose, didn’t go away.
There were eight lead changes in the fourth quarter alone. And it was the Cavs’ quiet giant who came through to help seal the win for the home crowd.
In the first half, Jarrett Allen played 14 minutes and took just two shot attempts for two points. After Tristan Thompson was dealt a flagrant two and ejected from the contest, Atkinson was forced to put Allen, who hasn’t always finished games this season, back in.
With Evan Mobley resting on the sideline in street clothes and Thompson now out of the game, Allen was the lone true center option for Cleveland. And he had to step up his performance from the earlier portion of the contest.
“He always shows up, especially when Ev is out. He knows it’s his time,” Mitchell said.
The 6-foot-9 center took advantage of the undersized Spurs who were trying to utilize their five-out lineup for spacing and pace. Instead, Allen poured in 19 of his game-high 29 points in the final period, and he was a perfect 6 of 6 from the field in the closing frame.
“I think in the first half, his energy was pretty down. I was concerned,” Atkinson said postgame. “I even shortened his minutes a little in the first half, I’m like, ‘man, JA doesn’t have it tonight.’ Which is normal with all the games he’s backed up. He knew what we needed. He knew we needed him to punish their small ball lineup and the key to our victory, the number one key to our victory was Jarrett Allen.”
His stellar performance in the fourth was highlighted by a second-chance dunk after an offensive rebound to put the Cavs up by five with just under five minutes to play. Allen also finished with 15 rebounds for his team-leading 38th double-double of the season.
To close out the game, it was Cleveland’s tenacious defense that held the Spurs to seven points over the final four minutes.
But, once again, the Cavs weren’t satisfied that it took until the final quarter to get into the type of play that they expect from themselves for 48 minutes.
“You got to be playing your best basketball going in the playoffs,” Max Strus, who finished with 18 points and four triples, said. “You don’t just want to wake up when it’s time to wake up.
“We need to start figuring out what it is that we need to do to play our best basketball and be our best selves going into April and May. … I think everybody in here knows that and got that message, and we’re gonna try our best to figure that out for these last nine games.”
Up next
The Cavs travel to Detroit for the second game of a back-to-back on Friday.
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