The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to hang around in a game they were without seven rotation players due to positive contributions from the back of the bench. However, that can only take you so far on a night
your two remaining stars simply don’t have it. This led to the Toronto Raptors grabbing a 110-99 win and sweeping the season series.
We’ve seen enough to say that the Raptors are a tricky matchup for the Cavaliers. While it’s true that the Cavs were shorthanded in all three matchups as Mitchell missed one and Darius Garland missed all three, it’d be wrong to completely chalk this up to injuries.
Teams with long, versatile wings give the Cavs problems. Teams that play fast and can quickly turn defense into offense also give the Cavs problems. The Raptors have both of those qualities when Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram are playing as they have in the season series.
The Cavs are hoping they’re a different team in April and May than they are now. That said, there’s a reason why the Raptors won all three games this convincingly in the regular season. That is something to remember when playoff seeding starts coming into focus this spring.
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The Cavaliers didn’t have a good answer for Ingram. He was an assassin from the midrange as he went 7-12 on two-point attempts outside the paint. Cleveland simply wasn’t able to keep Ingram from getting to his spots, and when he did get there, they didn’t have someone with the length to put a good contest on him.
This is where missing De’Andre Hunter hurt. Even though he isn’t their best defender, he does have the length to bother Ingram when he does get to his spots. Dean Wade also would’ve been a good defender to stick on Ingram for stretches as well.
The Cavs needed their stars to step up with who was out of the lineup. Cleveland needed their stars to step up with who was out of the lineup. Donovan Mitchell didn’t do so. He went 6-20 from the field and simply didn’t have it. Games like that happen. However, the game that Evan Mobley had simply can’t happen.
Cleveland didn’t lose this game because their end-of-the-rotation players didn’t show up. Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Tyrese Proctor, and Chris Livingston all provided good minutes.
Tomlin remains incredibly productive. He poured in 14 points on 6-8 shooting, which included going 2-3 from beyond the arc. Tomlin wasn’t able to stay with Ingram on the perimeter, but his energy on that end was at least better than the alternative.
Proctor had another decent showing even if he couldn’t get his shot to fall (2-9 from the floor). He remains a connector offensively who’s comfortable playing with and without the ball. It’s hard to find someone with those traits this early in their rookie season.
Livingston also performed well in his first real minutes with the team. His energy helped give the Cavs a chance in the fourth quarter as he provided a steal, added in seven points, and led the team in plus/minus by being a +12.
Cleveland can’t afford Mobley to be this much of a non-factor.
Mobley was efficient, going 5-7 from the field. But efficiency is the opposite of what the Cavaliers needed when they were this shorthanded. They need someone who can enforce his will against smaller opponents and dictate the terms of engagement on both sides of the ball. And they don’t just need it on a night like this. They need it in the playoffs as well when teams sell out to stop Mitchell and Darius Garland.
The best version of Mobley is aggressive. We saw him struggle in the first five or so games of the season when he was arguably trying to do too much. This led to the Cavs pulling him back in an effort to get him back to being his most efficient self. But being an efficient third option isn’t going to lead to a championship when the first two options are only 6’2”. You should be willing to live through the growing pains if there’s even a slight possibility he can become the best — or at least second-best — offensive player on an elite team.
You don’t want Mobley trying to create for himself if your goal is to win as many regular-season games as possible right now. He isn’t yet comfortable with double teams and the defense shifting over to stop him. Unfortunately, the only way to get better at that is to actually confront it, fail, learn from those mistakes, and then hopefully succeed. That’s what it seemed like the Cavs were willing to do until they prematurely pulled the plug.
These drastic changes in approach seem to have impacted Mobley’s confidence. That’s understandable given that he was presumably told all summer that he was going to be the focal point of the attack, only for them to reverse just two weeks into the regular season.
This has all added up to a game like this. One where Mobley isn’t an impactful defensive rebounder, can’t slow down the opponent’s best player, and isn’t willing to take on the scoring burden as Jaylon Tyson, Proctor, and Tomlin all took more shots than him.
This hasn’t been the step up we were expecting from someone coming off an All-NBA second team season. Instead, it’s been a regression that seems like it could’ve been avoided with proper communication and planning.
