{"id":671961,"date":"2026-03-22T04:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/671961\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T04:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:07:18","slug":"10-takeaways-from-the-cavs-come-from-behind-win-over-the-pelicans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/671961\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Takeaways from the Cavs come from behind win over the Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t the prettiest game, but the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> did enough in the fourth quarter<\/a> to erase a 15-point deficit to defeat the New Orleans Pelicans 111-106<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cavs found themselves down by double figures late, mostly due to their offense stalling out in the second and third quarters. Donovan Mitchell going 2-9 from the field in that span had a lot to do with that.<\/p>\n

For better or worse, the Cavs have gone as Mitchell has. They\u2019ve struggled when he has, and they\u2019ve won games when he\u2019s excelled.<\/p>\n

On the season, the Cavs are 21-9 when Mitchell scores 30 or more points and 12-1 when Mitchell totals 35 or more. Conversely, they\u2019re 5-4 without him and 6-10 when he plays and finishes with 21 or fewer points.<\/p>\n

That was the case once again. When Mitchell turned it around late, so did the Cavs. He provided 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, which included icing the game with an and-one layup with less than five seconds left.<\/p>\n

Despite the strong ending, it\u2019s fair to acknowledge that Mitchell is in a slump, particularly with his outside shot.<\/p>\n

Before February, Mitchell was connecting on 38.4% of his 9.8 threes per game<\/a>. Coming into Saturday\u2019s game, he\u2019s been converting just 28.4% of his 7.3 three-point attempts per game<\/a> since that time<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe this is something to worry about long-term.<\/p>\n

Mitchell is an elite shooter. We know he will break out of the funk he\u2019s in, and going 3-8 from deep with one of those coming at the start of the fourth quarter to help turn around momentum is a good start in doing so.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he\u2019s still finishing in the paint, which is still what he does best as a scorer. Since February \u2014 when his outside shot abandoned him \u2014 Mitchell has converted 69%<\/a> of his looks at the rim (71st percentile<\/a>) and 54%<\/a> of his shots in the short midrange (71st percentile<\/a>) while still getting to the line at a high clip.<\/p>\n

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Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can buy the Donovan Mitchell and James Harden NBA Jam shirt HERE<\/a>. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking of slumps, Dennis Schroder is really going through it right now.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t registered more than 10 points in a game since the March 3 win over the Detroit Pistons<\/a>. In the eight games since, Schroder is averaging 4.4 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.1 turnovers while shooting just 32.3% from the floor and 23.1% from three. That\u2019s not ideal.<\/p>\n

This game was no different. Schroder once again couldn\u2019t get his shot to go as he tallied just a single point while going 0-4 from the field, which included an aired three-point attempt.<\/p>\n

The Cavs could use a stabilizing ball handler off the bench. Unfortunately for Cleveland, Schroder hasn\u2019t been that over the last two weeks. It\u2019s fair to wonder if he still has a place in the playoff rotation.<\/p>\n

Max Strus was once again in the closing lineup. So far, he\u2019s been in the closing group for all four games he\u2019s played, even though he hasn\u2019t shot the ball particularly well since his debut last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Head coach Kenny Atkinson has mentioned there being a \u201ccomfort level<\/a>\u201d with Strus, given their history together. Jarrett Allen\u2019s return could presumably make one less spot in the closing group. As of now, it seems like Atkinson is going to close with two of Allen, Strus, and Sam Merrill.<\/p>\n

James Harden and Evan Mobley are continuing to get more comfortable with their two-man game. Harden assisted Mobley off of rolls to the basket twice and passed to him twice more on plays on which he was fouled. Each of those plays can be seen below.<\/p>\n

The timing of the pass on these actions is really important. Based on how things looked this time around, they\u2019re more on the same page.<\/p>\n

Merrill said after the game that it\u2019s taken him time to get used to Harden\u2019s passess because \u201c he likes the late pass and sometimes likes the real early pass<\/a>.\u201d The actions with Mobley are different, but you can see some of what Merrill is saying.<\/p>\n

Harden is going to find unconventional windows. The second pass in the clip above<\/a> is a great example of that as the pass is maybe a second later than what you\u2019d sometimes expect. However, waiting that split second longer gives Mobley a cleaner look at the basket. In this instance, Mobley was ready for that pass to come when he might not have been previously.<\/p>\n

Harden has stolen Mitchell\u2019s patented over-the-head gather move.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t look as pretty as Mitchell\u2019s, but it still led to a basket. Also, I like how Harden used the gather to bring the ball to his right side, but still went up with the left.<\/p>\n

Mitchell and Harden continue to be on the same page in the fourth quarter. The duo combined to score 25 of Cleveland\u2019s 35 points, with both taking eight shots in the final period.<\/p>\n

Like most ball-dominant pairings, there\u2019s a bit of \u201cyour turn, my turn\u201d to their game, but not in a bad way. The two have shown a great awareness of how to best attack the defense, gotten the ball to the person who had it going, and spaced the floor well if the play broke down.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an effective strategy when both players are this good at attacking off the catch and lethal in isolation.<\/p>\n

The Cavs have consistently had a great offense when these two share the floor. Coming into this game, the Cavaliers have registered a blistering 127.8 offensive rating<\/a> (99th percentile<\/a>) and a 9.1 net rating<\/a> (89th percentile<\/a>) when both are on the court. Those numbers are only going to improve after their close to this game.<\/p>\n

Things can become more difficult when the game slows down in the clutch. But as of now, the great offense they\u2019ve produced all game has carried over perfectly to late-game situations. That\u2019s incredibly encouraging with the playoffs less than a month away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t the prettiest game, but the Cleveland Cavaliers did enough in the fourth quarter to erase a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,1236,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":["post-671961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-cavs-analysis","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116270863632022238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671961","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=671961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}