{"id":703147,"date":"2026-04-07T11:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703147\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:20:17","slug":"8-takeaways-from-cavs-convincing-142-126-win-over-grizzlies-cleveland-locks-up-home-court-in-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703147\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Takeaways from Cavs convincing 142-126 win over Grizzlies: Cleveland locks up home court in first round"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> took care of business as they dispatched the Memphis Grizzlies 142-126<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This felt like a preseason game.<\/p>\n

The Cavs chose to give nearly all of their regular rotation players who played the night before against the Indiana Pacers the night off. They were without Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Thomas Bryant, and Max Strus due to rest, in addition to Dean Wade and Jaylon Tyson still being out with injuries.<\/p>\n

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Things were worse on the other side. The Grizzlies had 13 players ruled out for this game. That left nine available players, with four of those being guys on 10-day contracts due to the hardship exemption.<\/p>\n

Despite the number of players missing, the Cavs were able to run out some lineups that made more sense compared to Sunday<\/a>. The starting five of Dennis Schroder, Keon Ellis, Sam Merrill, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen are all expected to be in the playoff rotation. And they played like it.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers made sure this game wasn\u2019t up for grabs in the fourth quarter. A 19-5 run helped them reassert control in the second quarter. Then, a strong third quarter allowed them to create the separation they needed for a stress-free victory.<\/p>\n

Schroder had his first great game in a month. He did a good job of setting up the offense and finding avenues to score himself. Continually getting into the lane off the dribble allowed him to do so.<\/p>\n

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He finished 22 points on 8-12 shooting to go along with 11 assists. This included going 7-8 on shots in the paint.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s performance was only the second time Schroder has recorded double-digit points with at least three assists since the first week of March. For reference, he accomplished this seven times in his first 15 games with the team.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve seen throughout his career, Schroder needs the ball in his hands consistently to be his best self. He\u2019s a rhythm player who requires constant touches to get the most out of his game.<\/p>\n

What Schroder does best doesn\u2019t translate as neatly to playing off-ball. He\u2019s not someone who attacks quickly off the catch or is a typical floor spacer. Instead, he\u2019s deliberate in how he probes the paint and gets others involved while doing so.<\/p>\n

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This ideal role isn\u2019t one Schroder has been able to play with the Cavs when Mitchell and Harden are in the lineup. Both of the starting guards do a majority of their work on-ball. And while Schroder has shown to be impactful throughout his career, he\u2019s not good enough to warrant taking the ball out of either Mitchell\u2019s or Harden\u2019s hands for extended stretches.<\/p>\n

The Cavs could use this version of Schroder in the playoffs, the one that is consistently getting downhill and playmaking from there. How they go about doing so when the team is fully healthy is an equation they haven\u2019t solved recently.<\/p>\n

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Keon Ellis showed how well-rounded his offensive game is. He put up 19 points on 7-11 shooting to go along with eight assists. Ellis did this by decisively attacking whenever the ball swung his way. This included doing a good job of running second-side pick-and-rolls similar to what we\u2019ve seen from Strus.<\/p>\n

The offensive game has been better than advertised since coming over from the Sacramento Kings. Right now, Ellis feels firmly cemented in the playoff rotation.<\/p>\n

Evan Mobley\u2019s numbers look more impressive than they felt.<\/p>\n

There were times it seemed like Mobley wasn\u2019t processing the game quickly enough to be a focal point in the offense. Early on, he struggled to make plays against a Memphis defense that was heavily shading his way whenever he caught the ball in a stationary position. That\u2019s why he ended up with three turnovers in the first half.<\/p>\n

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However, just because something doesn\u2019t feel impressive doesn\u2019t mean it wasn\u2019t. You don\u2019t luck your way into 24 points on 9-11 shooting with four assists.<\/p>\n

Mobley is at his best when he\u2019s in motion. This game proved that once again. Nearly all of his baskets came whenever he was forcefully going toward the basket. Memphis didn\u2019t have anyone who could stop him or even slow him down. And quite frankly, few teams do when he\u2019s attacking with force like this.<\/p>\n

Larry Nance Jr. performed well for his second game in a row. He provided good minutes off the bench as he had 10 points, three rebounds, and a steal in just over 21 minutes.<\/p>\n

This has been a difficult season for Nance. He hasn\u2019t had nearly the impact that he and the Cavs were hoping for when he returned home this past offseason. An uncharacteristically shaky jumper and slightly less athleticism than he had a few years ago have kept him from doing so. At least he\u2019s been able to end the season strong, even if it\u2019s too late to get back into the rotation.<\/p>\n

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The Cavs feel locked into the fourth seed.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks<\/a>\u2018 win over the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> secured that Cleveland can\u2019t fall further than four, and also made it difficult for them to climb up to three. That\u2019s a good place for the Cavs to be, considering it would delay a possible matchup with the Boston Celtics<\/a> for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

The Cavs haven\u2019t had much to play for over the past week. That feeling will continue, especially when they take on the Hawks \u2014 their likely first-round opponent \u2014 twice during their final three regular-season games.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be surprised if Kenny Atkinson decided to play a majority of his guys in those matchups. Atlanta has something to play for with how close spots five through eight are in the East. The Cavs don\u2019t. There isn\u2019t a reason to go for it, considering this team\u2019s injury luck, unless you want to do everything you can to make sure you didn\u2019t play the Hawks in the first round. But even if they did go for it, there\u2019s no guarantee that Atlanta would fall out of fifth place.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find out how the Cavs choose to approach this when they host the Hawks on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers took care of business as they dispatched the Memphis Grizzlies 142-126. This felt like a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[208,7,75,193,5759,1024,864,576,126,560,1178,2286,3211,872,177,6,191,477,1166,362],"class_list":{"0":"post-703147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-dean-wade","13":"tag-dennis-schroder","14":"tag-donovan-mitchell","15":"tag-evan-mobley","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-james-harden","18":"tag-jarrett-allen","19":"tag-jaylon-tyson","20":"tag-keon-ellis","21":"tag-max-strus","22":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-new-york-knicks","25":"tag-sacramento-kings","26":"tag-sam-merrill","27":"tag-thomas-bryant"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116363161714368137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703147","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=703147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}