The Cleveland Cavaliers played some of their best basketball of the season in their 133-107 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. Now, we’ll see if they can build on this.
This was arguably the
Cavs’ most impressive performance of the season. They thoroughly dominated both ends of the floor by playing their brand of basketball.
Offensively, they were moving the ball around better than they have all season (41 of their 50 made field goals were assisted), and they were hitting their outside shots with regularity (43.5% from three)
.You could rightly say the Cavs shot above their normal, expected percentage from deep on Wednesday. At the same time, it’s fair to point out that most of these shots were open due to how well the ball was moving around the court.
Analytics and expected shot value numbers are useful, but they don’t quite capture how much easier shooting becomes when everyone is touching the ball and involved in the offense like this.
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Defensively, the Cavs defended the paint like you’d expect a team starting two shot-blocking centers to. Philadelphia converted just 54.2% of their shots at the rim (12th percentile). This led to the Sixers ending the game in the 9th percentile for effective field-goal percentage (46%) and the 19th percentile for half-court offensive rating (86.5).
Evan Mobley was everywhere defensively. Jarrett Allen drew the Joel Embiid assignment, which let Mobley play free safety. He was incredibly disruptive in this role as he was able to blow up plays as a help defender and continually rotated over to put timely contests on shots at the rim. This resulted in him picking up four blocks.
It was a Defensive Player of the Year type performance from Mobley.
Allen deserves a ton of credit as well. Head coach Kenny Atkinson’s decision to basically tie Allen’s minutes to Embiid’s paid off. Allen was physical at the point of attack, making it difficult for Philadelphia to run their offense through Embiid like they typically prefer to do. This led to Embiid turning it over six times (the most he’s had in a game this season) and the Cavs outscoring the Sixers by 18 when he was on the floor.
Allen seems to be at his best when he’s guarding the premier bigs in the league. He’s had success — or at least what you can reasonably define as success — defending players like Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Allen has continually risen to those challenges and hasn’t backed away from the physicality that those stars bring.
The issues for Allen come when he’s going against physical, non-star bigs like Jonas Valančiūnas, Ivica Zubac, or Mitchell Robinson. It’s those matchups that he often gets pushed around and punished on the glass.
Why exactly that’s been the case is open to interpretation. Allen’s natural inclination to help off of his defender is something he can’t do when he’s guarding a star player like Embiid. That keeps him in a good position to get rebounds.
Then, there’s the increased focus that comes from being in one of these matchups. Allen’s energy can fluctuate more than anyone else on the team. When he’s locked in, like he was in Philadelphia, he can be one of the most impactful traditional centers in the league.
Games like this can make Allen one of the most frustrating players to watch. The talent is there, it just doesn’t show through as often as it should. In many ways, Allen’s inconsistencies mirror the team’s as a whole.
Putting together great performances hasn’t been an issue for the Cavs this season. They’ve had standout wins over the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, and Minnesota Timberwolves so far this season. Even though the Sixers aren’t as good as those teams, this win is arguably more impressive due to how thorough it was.
However, having occasional great performances doesn’t make a team a contender. Doing so on a nightly basis does.
Until the Cavs show that they can back up this performance with a good showing in their next game, there’s little reason to believe that things will be different this time around. They have to break the cycle of taking one step forward and another back.
Don’t take Donovan Mitchell for granted.
There was a brief moment in the third quarter where the Sixers seemed like they were going to make it a game. They cut the deficit to 11 with just four minutes left in the quarter, and Darius Garland just went back to the locker room with a foot injury. At that point, it seemed like it could be anyone’s game, but Mitchell had other ideas.
Mitchell responded by scoring nine points and assisting on another basket to closeout the quarter and retake momentum. Instead of Philadelphia keeping the game close, they were down by 18 points going into the fourth and didn’t have a real shot at a comeback.
Being a clutch player isn’t always about making the final shot. It can also be about doing things like this to make sure that the game is never close late in the first place.
Great players find ways to impact the outcome of a game by taking over for stretches like this. Mitchell took it upon himself to ensure the Cavs weren’t going to let go of this game, and he delivered.
