The Cleveland Cavaliers picked up a much-needed win as they defeated the San Antonio Spurs 130-117 thanks to a momentum-changing third-quarter run.
For maybe the first time all season, the Cavs played the level of basketball they made look routine last year. They outscored the Spurs 44-19 in the third quarter by simply controlling both sides of the ball. They played good defense, turned that into transition offense, and then relentlessly attacked the basket whenever they could.
This led to a shot chart that was the complete opposite of what we’ve seen for most of the season. Instead of shooting the three-ball, they scored the ball from the most efficient spot on the floor: The restricted area.
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Head coach Kenny Atkinson has talked often about wanting to see his team get to the basket more. This was once again an issue on Wednesday as his team took 52 threes and 23 shots at the rim during the loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
“We’ve got some guys struggling right now,” Atkinson said then about the Cavs’ outside shooting. “I would have loved to go in for layups or drive it.”
The offense finally found a way to attack the basket. The Cavs took 43 shots at the rim this game. Those accounted for 54% of their shot attempts (100th percentile). This came at the expense of the three-ball as they took a season-low 26 attempts. It was the inverse of what we saw earlier this week.
Twenty-six threes isn’t an ideal number of outside attempts. That said, if the defense isn’t going to stop you from getting to the basket, there’s no reason to go away from attacking it. An attempt at the rim is still the most efficient shot in basketball.
As Evan Mobley said after the game, “I mean, when you shoot paint shots, it’s easier to make.”
If you’re trying to relieve pressure from Donovan Mitchell, cutting off-ball is the way to do it. Mitchell tied a season-high with eight assists. Five of those came from attacking the basket off-ball.
Not every opponent will be missing their rotation centers like San Antonio, as Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet were sidelined. That made scoring in this way much easier. But this is one of the best ways to combat a three-point shot that isn’t falling right now. You can’t load up on a single ball handler if you know you can get beat away from the play.
The Cavs haven’t been a good cutting team this season. This — along with three-point accuracy — is one of the parts of the offense that simply hasn’t been there. Last year, the Cavs were fifth in cuts per game and first in points per play on cuts (1.43). The Cavs are cutting nearly the same amount per game this season, they just aren’t finishing as they’re now 26th in points per cut (1.22).
This game was a step in the right direction. Players like Craig Porter Jr., Jaylon Tyson, and Nae’Qwan Tomlin all did damage attacking the basket off-ball.
Continuing to play well off-ball will determine if the younger players can play in the playoffs.
“What we’ve tried to do is really mold them with [the playoffs] in mind,” Atkinson said. “You’re going to do the things you’re doing in the playoffs 1765002191, not like a regular-season role player. … If you’re a rotation player in the playoffs, like Nae’Qwan, cutting is a big [thing]. He’s got to be able to cut. … Cutting matters in the playoffs, especially when they’re loaded up on your guys and they start blitzing you, and you start throwing that to the half-roll.”
This is an area Tyson has learned to excel in as a professional.
“The biggest thing I love about him is to go from a scorer like that in college to [wanting to be] like a Josh Hart or like a Bruce Brown, which is the complete opposite of being a scorer,” Mitchell said of Tyson. “Doing all the little things like that says a lot about you as a person and also as a player.”
Tyson wasn’t given many opportunities to be that type of player last season. He had to instead learn from the sidelines by watching teammates like Max Strus.
“I would say his toughness, his leadership, and just how he plays without the ball,” Tyson said about what he learned from studying Strus’s game. “Max doesn’t get the ball a lot, especially being in that starting lineup with Darius [Garland], Don, and Evan needing the ball. But how he moved off the ball, and how he just impacts winning at a very high level.”
This — combined with a work ethic his coach calls “insane” — has led to Tyson being just a flat-out productive player.
Earlier in the season, it was easier to praise Tyson for just his energy and effort. Even if it was sometimes self-destructive, his willingness to make stuff happen was better than the alternative. Now, just saying his energy is useful would be a disservice to just how helpful he’s been.
Tyson has taken a meaningful step forward from where he was a month and a half ago. He’s more sure of how to attack off-ball on offense and better knows where he should be on defense. Throw in having a vastly improved three-point shot and displaying incredible touch around the rim, and you have someone who has been one of the most dependable players on the team.
“I’m really running out of nice things to say, because he just does it every night,” Mitchell said about Tyson. “Every single night, he’s doing something positive for us, and that’s what we need.”