character-building 117-115 win<\/a> \u2014 their third this season against the Sixers who could pose a threat later this spring. <\/p>\n\u201cI knew they were going to try to take it out of my hands,\u201d Mitchell said of Philadelphia\u2019s defense. \u201cI was expecting to get the ball and then have them come double me. Credit to them because they made the right play. But credit to Zo \u2014 our inbounder didn\u2019t panic and found the right guy. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen J.T., the presence of mind for a second-year player to not go for the layup and be the hero but to make the right play to Evan Mobley because Embiid helped, that to me is just as big as anything else. He could have tried to get 40. He could\u2019ve tried to do it on his own and let the moment be about him. But instead, he makes the right play to win us the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the biggest moment, in the biggest situation, in a crucial game, he goes out there and does that. That\u2019s a special mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
That game-winning assist, Tyson\u2019s fourth of the night, was the perfect ending to his magnum opus. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an embodiment of him,\u201d Mitchell said of Tyson. \u201cHe\u2019s doing all this and yet, he is the same person. He does whatever helps the team. He has done everything that has been asked, kept a positive mindset and is eager to learn. That\u2019s what I love about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyson finished with a career-high 39 points on an ultra-efficient 13 of 17 from the field and 7 of 9 from 3-point range. He drained a clutch late-game triple that gave Cleveland its first lead of the second half with 1:59 remaining. He guarded Maxey, one of the NBA\u2019s leading scorers, the entire night. Got the game ball and an impromptu ice bath \u2014 the soaked remnants of a remarkable night left in the visitor\u2019s locker room of Xfinity Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to make this all about me,\u201d Tyson said. \u201cIt was a good team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before Tyson could finish his thought, Hunter interjected from the adjacent locker. <\/p>\n
Forget the humble (expletive), man. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I did have a good game,\u201d Tyson continued. \u201cIt was definitely something I will never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours ahead of the soaking, before he made a single basket, Tyson knew someone had to step up in the absence of Garland and Merrill. The Cavs entered Friday\u2019s game expecting the physical, hounding, pesky Sixers to deploy playoff-like defensive tactics designed to take the ball out of Mitchell\u2019s hands, forcing someone else to beat them. <\/p>\n
Mitchell even pulled Tyson to the side at one point and made that clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need you to go back to Cal,\u201d Mitchell told Tyson, referencing the do-everything, primary-scorer role the youngster had during his final collegiate season.<\/p>\n
Tyson did just that. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me to be California Jaylon,\u201d Tyson explained with a bright smile. \u201cI was like, \u2018Alright, you want to see California Jaylon, I will show you California Jaylon.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what does that mean?<\/p>\n
\u201cGet a bucket,\u201d he said of his alter ego. \u201cDo a little bit of everything. Be aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following a featureless rookie season in which Tyson logged just 453 total minutes and sporadically went down to the G League just to get consistent game reps, he talked with Atkinson about how to earn a bigger opportunity. <\/p>\n
Atkinson told him to take on a specific role. <\/p>\n
Don\u2019t try to do too much. Blend into the fabric of the team. Guard the opponent\u2019s best player. Fight through screens. Bring nonstop energy. Pester ballhanders full court. Knock down open shots. Rebound at both ends. <\/p>\n
All the little things that contribute to winning. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s path is different,\u201d Tyson said Friday. \u201cMy path last year was to learn from really good vets on a really good team. Then just find my niche. I feel like I have found my niche on this team and I feel like I\u2019m just playing my role. That\u2019s really all I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m not doing nothing spectacular. We have really good players on this team who get paid a lot of money to do what they do, so I just play off them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s being too humble. <\/p>\n
Tyson has become a fixture of the every-night rotation. He\u2019s been one of the team\u2019s best, most reliable, most impactful and most consistent two-way players. Everyone is gushing about his rapid development. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jaylon Tyson is not the leader for Most Improved then I don\u2019t know what the award is for,\u201d Mitchell said pointedly. \u201cThis is no disrespect to past winners. I don\u2019t know who they have been. But I feel like a lot of the past winners have been top picks and they\u2019re expected to be that. I promise you nobody in here said Jaylon Tyson was going to have a 39-point night against the Sixers, in Philly, with no D.G. and no Sam Merrill. That\u2019s what the award is for. It\u2019s for guys like him where he catches everybody by surprise \u2014 in his second season.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Friday\u2019s night\u2019s outburst, Tyson is now averaging 13.4 points \u2014 one of seven Cavaliers in double figures \u2014 on 52.4% from the field and 47.5% from beyond the arc in 27.2 minutes. He is second among all qualified players in 3-point marksmanship, trailing just Milwaukee\u2019s Bobby Portis. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason why the Cavs chose Tyson in the first round. There\u2019s a reason why they told him to prepare for a bigger workload in Year 2. <\/p>\n
But no one expected this. <\/p>\n
No one but Tyson. <\/p>\n
\u201cNahhh, I\u2019m not surprised by how I\u2019ve played,\u201d Tyson told cleveland.com confidently. \u201cI can understand why people are and why they say that. I didn\u2019t play last year. So, nobody really knew the potential I had, how I could play or how I could help this team. But in the back of my mind, I knew I could help this team and I went into this past summer preparing to play this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings have happened that opened up room for me to be able to play, and I had to take advantage of those opportunities. You don\u2019t want to look too far down the line. Obviously, it\u2019s still a work in progress. I still have a lot of work to do. But I think I can be an elite two-way player in this league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m built for this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Jaylon Tyson wasn\u2019t the first option. After 76ers All-Star Tyrese Maxey tied the game with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-542408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115909507450935606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}