What is the story about?
The
Cleveland Cavaliers looked more like their old selves. The offense was humming for stretches in a way that it hasn’t for most of the season. Darius Garland’s return has a lot to do with that. The Cavaliers came away from Friday’s game with a 120-109 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Here are the four factors from this game. These numbers are from Cleaning the Glass.
Now, let’s dive into some of the stats.
- The Cavs went 20-29 (69%) in the restricted area. This resulted in 37% of their shot attempts being at the rim (75th percentile). Not getting to the basket has been an issue throughout the season. This was one of the areas Garland helped get the offense back on track.
- Cleveland went 13-35 (37.1%) from three. That’s not necessarily an exceptional percentage by any stretch. It was, however, a step in the right direction. Garland’s ability to shoot — he went 3-4 from deep — combined with the ball movement that comes from having an additional facilitator on the floor, contributed to this.
- Cleveland registered a 103.4 half-court offensive rating (72nd percentile). This felt like a better offensive showing than what the numbers would indicate. The ball movement and the Cavs’ ability to get to the basket are likely why. Cleveland wasn’t able to get out in transition much, which hurt their overall offensive rating (118.8, 67th percentile). That said, they executed well in the half-court and put up their sixth-best half-court offensive rating on the season.
- Four of the Cavs’ starters scored 20 or more points. Their fifth starter, Jaylon Tyson, wasn’t far behind finishing with 14. This was just a well-balanced game from a scoring perspective.
- The bench only combined for 12 points. They went 6-19 (31.6%) from the field. This is where not being able to rely on either Sam Merrill or Tyson coming off the bench hurt.
- Jaylon Tyson continues his good three-point shooting, going 2-3 from deep. He leads the team in three-point percentage as he’s 47.3% from deep on the season. Tyson didn’t know that he led the team in three-point percentage — he doesn’t look at stats — but it doesn’t surprise him. “I know what work I put in in the summer. I know the work I put in leading up to the NBA, so I’m gonna keep having confidence in it.”
- The closing lineup of Garland, Mitchell, Lonzo Ball, De’Andre Hunter, and Evan Mobley was a +7 in just over three minutes. It seems like the Cavs made the move for Ball in the offseason with this lineup in mind. These were their first minutes, and they looked good.
- The two-man grouping of Garland and Mitchell now has a net rating of +30 in 61 minutes. It’s an incredibly small sample size (that’s filled with two full games against bad teams like the Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers), but this is incredibly encouraging to see. This has been a dominant team when their two primary ball-handlers are on the floor.
- The Cavs held Indiana to 58.6% shooting at the rim (21st percentile). The defense is at its best when it can limit its opponent’s ability to finish inside. They were able to do so on Friday.
