The Cleveland Cavaliers looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers again as they took down the Indiana Pacers 120-109. Darius Garland’s return played a large role in that.
Their second-round matchup was only six months ago, but neither team has resembled who they were last spring often this season. Still, this is a win that Donovan Mitchell is happy his team picked up.
“They beat us, you want to beat them, simple as that,” Mitchell said after scoring a game-high 32 points.
“They’re different, but pretty much
everybody that played was there last year except for Jeremiah [Robinson-Earl], right? … But I think when you play a team that knocks you out, you want to win, and we took care of business.”
This feeling isn’t reserved for just the Pacers.
“I hate every team that beat us,” Mitchell said. “I’m pretty sure they’d say the same thing right? Like, you hate Boston because they knocked us out. You hate New York. I hate Dallas because they knocked us out, I mean, [I’m not even on] the same team. It’s just natural. You have a chance to play for a championship, you don’t like the team that knocks you out. You’re sitting [at] home while they’re on TV. It’s natural as a competitor. You want to win.”
The Cavs will need to look much more like the team they were tonight in the playoffs if they want to keep from adding another team to that list. For them to do so, they’ll need their All-Star point guard on the court.
Darius Garland makes all the difference.
His inclusion does two things: Allows their offense to get to the basket more and adds another dangerous three-point shooter to the floor.
Garland doesn’t get to the rim with blinding speed or pure athleticism. Instead, it’s the various things he can do once he gets into the paint that make him so dangerous. His ability to hit the in-between floater, lay it up, or stop on a dime for a free-throw line jumper makes him incredibly difficult to stay in front of. Throw in his pinpoint passing to both shooters on the perimeter or guys in the dunker spot into the decision tree, and it’s not difficult to see why he’s one of the best floor generals in the game.
Garland showcased both his interior scoring and passing ability. He didn’t finish at the rim much, but he was able to draw seven free-throw attempts. Most of which were derived from attacking the interior. The Cavs as a team also took more shots at the rim than normal — 37% of their field-goal attempts came in the restricted area (75th percentile) — which has to do with Garland’s ability to find open teammates. No one else on the roster is making these interior passes.
“There was a reason why we got to the rim a lot tonight,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “It wasn’t just [Garland’s] penetration. I thought he fed Evan [Mobley], you know, we’ve missed that. So I felt like we were at the rim all night, and a big reason was DG.”
The three-point shooting remains one of the biggest differences from this year to last. They were second in three-point percentage last season but are 18th now despite taking the third most threes per 100 possessions.
The Cavs didn’t shoot the cover off the ball on Friday, but they did look more like their usual selves as they went 13-35 (37.1%) from distance. Garland’s shooting — he went 3-4 from deep — and his ability to generate three-point looks with his ability to move the ball played a part in generating good looks.
Atkinson has mentioned after many poor shooting nights that their shot quality was good based on the team’s metrics. I don’t doubt their stats, but there is something about getting the ball in rhythm within a free-flowing offense that allows people to shoot their best that can’t be empirically captured. Garland’s passing ability causes that to happen more naturally.
The Cavs are finding more creative ways to use Mobley with Mitchell in the two-man game. Mobley got a nice basket off an inverted pick-and-pop with Mitchell.
“They got to make a decision,” Mitchell said about this play. “Do they switch? Do they stay with me? There’s so many other things going on.”
The Pacers had the choice of either giving up an open three or a wide-open lane to Mobley. They chose to latter. It’s also worth pointing out that this doesn’t work if it isn’t this good a screen from Mitchell.
Atkinson decided to close with a group of Garland, Mitchell, Lonzo Ball, De’Andre Hunter, and Mobley. This was the group’s first time sharing the floor. They were a +7 in just over three minutes, which isn’t surprising. The combination of ball handling with some defensive versatility makes it an incredibly intriguing grouping.
“We all have great IQ when it comes to the game and kind of putting guys in spots,” Mitchell said when asked about the three-guard lineups. “We all can shoot the ball, create, attack. So I think that’s one thing you saw. Just being able to push the pace once we get the rebound and go and make it tough.”
I have a feeling this is a closing lineup we’re going to see a lot of.
For as disjointed as the Cavs have looked this season, they’ve been good when either Mitchell or Garland is on the floor.
Cleveland has registered similar impact numbers with Mitchell on the floor without Garland this season compared to last. The issue has been minutes with neither Mitchell nor Garland. Those have done them in. The Cavs came into Friday’s game with a dreadful 107.7 offensive rating (12th percentile) and -4.6 net rating when neither has been on the court.
This is one of the biggest differences between this year and last. The Cavs were able to have a solid 117.6 offensive rating (73rd percentile) and +5.7 net rating (80th percentile) without both last season.
The Cavaliers sacrificed some of their overlapping skillsets for pieces that theoretically complement a fully healthy team much better. Those previously overlapping skills helped tremendously over an 82-game regular-season slog. We don’t yet know if the offseason moves will help a fully healthy team since we haven’t seen a game with their top eight rotation players available. This may ultimately be the right move. However, it does make the team much more reliant on having both Mitchell and Garland available.
The Cavs remain a work in progress, but nights like this show you that the foundations of the 64-win team are still there. Their best players, including Garland, just need to be on the court together to show it.
“We’re so much more versatile,” Atkinson said about having Garland back. “We played with so much more speed. I felt like we had some of last year’s transition possessions where we sling it across the court, and we swing it. So I felt a little bit more like ourselves tonight.”
