The Cleveland Cavaliers did just enough to get past the tanking Utah Jazz 122-113, thanks to 34-point performances from both Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell.
How much can you actually take from this game? Tanking has been a part of the NBA for decades, but few teams have been as shameless about it as the Jazz.
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Utah has taken the art of tanking to a new extreme. Last month, they weren’t closing games with their best players, which resulted in a $500,000 fine. Then, the league seemingly didn’t believe them when they tried to shut Lauri Markkanen down with a hip injury, and were rumored to be sending an independent doctor to verify the diagnosis before deciding not to. And, they’re one of the teams at the center of the league’s initiative to end tanking.
Despite Adam Silver’s best efforts, the Jazz have kept losing. They came into this game on a five-game losing streak and had dropped nine of their last 10.
Unsurprisingly, they were also down several key players in Monday’s matchup as they were without Markkanen (hip), Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee), Walker Kessler (shoulder), Jusuf Nurkic (nose), Keyonte George (hamstring), and Isaiah Collier (hamstring). Few teams are going to be competitive if they’re missing that many rotation players. That’s especially true for ones that aren’t built to be competitive in the first place.
The Cavs knew this all as well. They also chose to rest two key players, Max Strus and Jarrett Allen, before their showdown with the red-hot Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night. That makes it a tough game to get up for. It also makes it foolish to react too strongly to anything that happened on the court.
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That preamble out of the way, let’s see if we can glean at least some things from this one.
The Cavaliers are now 14-2 when Donovan Mitchell scores 34 or more points and 20-9 when he scores 30 or more.
The team has gone as Mitchell has this season. That was on display again, as Mitchell’s former team couldn’t keep him from getting to the basket whenever he wanted. This resulted in Mitchell going 7-9 in the paint and 11-12 from the charity stripe.
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Tyrese Proctor was the one exception from an otherwise forgettable bench performance. He made the most of his opportunity by supplying eight points on 3-6 shooting in 12 minutes of action.
This wasn’t a standout performance, but it did show how Proctor can be helpful. He fit into the overall offense by finding his spots to score, which included tipping in one of Sam Merrill’s eight three-point misses.
Speaking of which, the Cavs went just 6-32 (18.8%) from three (2nd percentile).
I’m not sure if it’s worth going into this much. Cleveland generated open looks, but they just didn’t go. That included Merrill going an uncharacteristic 0-8 from distance.
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On one hand, it’s worth pointing out that the Cavs aren’t going to win many playoff games if they shoot that poorly from three. On the other hand, it’s worth acknowledging that Cleveland was still in the 67th percentile for offensive rating despite shooting that badly from deep.
Evan Mobley forcefully attacking the paint helped mitigate the team’s poor outside shooting. He did a good job of continually finding ways to get into the teeth of Utah’s defense and finish inside. This led to 34 points on 15-21 shooting, which included going 10-12 on shots at the rim.
The Cavs are at their best — especially since they’ve added James Harden — when they’re getting in the paint and then setting up the rest of their offense from there. That happened here as Cleveland doubled up Utah inside, outscoring them 82-40 in the paint. Mobley’s aggressiveness as the lone big played a large role in that happening.
Additionally, Mobley relentlessly looked to score in the fourth as he recorded a team-high 10 points in the final frame. He single-handedly put the game away by scoring on three-straight possessions late, despite playing with five fouls.
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The Cavs have struggled to feature Mobley late in games, even on nights he’s had it going. Being able to find him in the clutch — and having his run essentially seal the game — was incredibly encouraging on a night Mitchell also played well offensively.
Harden has bought into being the prototypical point guard for this team. He’s willingly ceded the scoring reigns to whoever else on the team has it going. This evening, that meant deferring to boy Mobley and Mitchell.
Since coming to Cleveland, Harden has often played like he’d rather set up teammates than score himself. A performance like this — against a team he was able to manipulate seemingly at will — underscored the extent that seemed to be true. Nearly every move he made off-the-dribble was done to create a window for a pass or an open lane for a teammate to fill. The shot attempts felt almost like a way to keep defenses honest, even though a top-10 scorer in league history doesn’t really need to remind opponents that he can still do that.
Half of Harden’s 14 assists went to Mobley, with five of them coming off of pick-and-rolls.
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These actions develop differently, but you’ll notice three commonalities between them.
First, the ball is always delivered high, above Mobley’s waist. This allows him to keep his momentum going after the catch.
Second, you’ll see how hard Mobley is cutting to the basket in these actions. And if he isn’t cutting hard, it’s because he’s found a window to sit in. This is a drastic change from how things looked when Harden first arrived in Cleveland. Before then, Mobley would often drift off screens. Now, he’s not doing so.
Finally, the contact on these screens from Mobley looks different depending on the situation. Instead of just slipping the screen automatically, he’s reading whether he needs to set a hard screen, just make contact, or quickly duck out. This makes it much more difficult to defend, as there’s an element of surprise that wasn’t there before.
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This game was far from perfect — especially defensively — but it’s incredibly encouraging that the Cavs have once again found a way to have their three best players performing near peak level when sharing the floor.
Playoff basketball is often won by the team whose best three or four-man combinations are in sync. Right now, the Cavs are. We’ll see if that carries when the games start really mattering in a few weeks.