The Cleveland Cavaliers grabbed their first win of the season, seemingly despite their best intentions. The Cavaliers nearly coughed up a 25-point second-half lead to the lowly Brooklyn Nets before securing
a 131-124 victory.
This will go down as a win in the standings, but this was hardly one to feel good about for the Cavs.
It’s dangerous to take too much away from a game like this. The Cavs won’t be playing in too many games this season with a greater talent disparity between them and their opponent.
Cleveland is one of the handful of teams that could win a title this season. Meanwhile, Brooklyn is squarely in the hunt for the most ping pong balls in this year’s Draft Lottery. These opposite goals don’t usually make for good, fair fights. And yet, this game was much closer than it ever should’ve been.
The Cavs’ defense continues to be a major concern. The New York Knicks got whatever they wanted to at the rim, generated quality threes, and benefited from continual second-chance points on Wednesday. That wasn’t ideal, but it was at least justifiable. New York is a good team. Conversely, Brooklyn may be the least talented team in the league. Therefore, this wasn’t justifiable.
The best NBA defenses force you to take the shots you don’t want to. That looks different for every team.
For the Cavs under J.B. Bickerstaff, that meant running their opponent off the three-point line and into their waiting front line of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. They would give up second-chance points with how aggressively they contested looks at the rim, but there was a method to what they were doing.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson has mentioned that he wants his team to force more turnovers. That means aggressively jumping passing lanes and rotating over to provide doubles when needed. The issue is, they aren’t generating turnovers and are getting out of position. These leave them in rotation and awkward mismatches, which in the end, can lead to easy three pointers, a ton of second-chance opportunities, and clean runs to the basket.
That is exactly what we saw against the Nets. Brooklyn generated and connected on more threes while converting and attempting one fewer shot in the restricted area. It’s hard to believe that could happen given the talent discrepancy.
Second-chance points are an issue. Brooklyn grabbed 10 offensive rebounds, which led to 19 second-chance points. This is a game after New York had 13 points off of offensive rebounds.
You can’t be a good defense and continue to get beaten in this way.
Right now, the Cavaliers have great defensive personnel and a terrible defense. There’s plenty of time for that to change. But this team won’t come close to changing their postseason fortunes if this doesn’t drastically change between now and the spring.
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Welcome back, Jarrett Allen.
For whatever reason, Allen started his season two days later than the rest of his teammates. After registering just four shot attempts and four rebounds in 28 minutes against the New York Knicks, Allen exploded with 22 points on 8-11 shooting against the Nets.
This performance was a reminder of how good Allen can be. Brooklyn didn’t have an answer for him when he was rolling to the rim and beating smaller mismatches in the post. His teammates also made a concerted effort to get him the ball, which didn’t hurt. In short, this was the exact opposite of whatever we saw at Madison Square Garden earlier this week.
Allen showed that he can be good when he wants to be. Atkinson called out Allen when talking to reporters Thursday after practice.
“That wasn’t the Jarrett Allen we all know,” Atkinson said. “That was more on us not seeking him out. But conversely, he can’t get four rebounds. I was really bummed about that. Can’t be like that.”
It’s crazy how all you have to do is remind Jarrett Allen that he’s important and he has a game like this. At the same time, it’s crazy how you have to remind Jarrett Allen he’s important for him to give this kind of effort.
It’s easy to overlook Allen’s contributions to the core four, but this grouping only works if Allen gives maximum effort. There are overlapping skills with him and Mobley, but Allen, at his best, can apply more rim pressure on offense, set harder screens, and clean the glass better. Those are incredibly important skills that shouldn’t ebb and flow from his game. Effort is the only reason why they do.
Allen won’t always be featured in the offense like he was tonight, and honestly, he shouldn’t be. Allen is the least talented offensive player in the starting lineup when the team is fully healthy. That isn’t a knock on Allen as much as it is a testament to how skilled this team is.
The things that Allen actually does best and are most useful don’t require him to have the ball. That means his impact on the game shouldn’t be dependent on whether he gets the ball. He isn’t a score-first guard that does little besides shoot. He’s a well-rounded traditional center whose presence should be felt on every play. And if that isn’t the case, the Cavs are better served with him on the bench and Mobley playing his natural position.
Mobley struggled to find a scoring rhythm. Maybe that’s because of how much effort the team put into Allen getting the ball. Maybe that’s from the double teams Brooklyn threw at him. However, it wasn’t encouraging to see a mediocre 13 points on 5-12 shooting night from Mobley against a team that shouldn’t have had much of a chance at guarding him.
Sam Merrill is playing the best basketball of his career.
Some players who get their first real payday coast. Others are freed up because they have the security that a multi-year deal provides. Merrill seems to be in the latter grouping.
Merrill is shooting the lights out right now. He went 6-10 tonight from deep in Brooklyn and is now 11-20 from three in two games. That torrid shooting isn’t going to continue. But his overall impact on both ends of the floor should still be high even when his shot cools down.
The Cavs players and coaches have raved about Merrill’s defense for a year. While he’s always been a solid team defender, some of that felt slightly exaggerated. So far this season, it isn’t.
Merrill has seemed like a smaller version of Dean Wade on defense so far this year. He’s doing a better job of anticipating where the ball is going and getting in the right position before the play comes to him. Additionally, he seems much stronger at the point of attack. What were once fouls because the offensive player could get him off-balance are now just clean contests.
Merrill may not be a defensive specialist quite yet, but he’s much closer to that than being the liability people assumed he’d be when he first started getting rotation minutes two years ago.
Craig Porter Jr. runs hot and cold. We saw this in the preseason. When Porter is on, he’s on.
Fortunately for the Cavs, Porter had it going on Friday. He poured in 14 points on 6-7 shooting. And when he’s hitting shots like this, he’s an incredibly valuable role player.
Imagine how helpful Lonzo Ball will be when he starts hitting shots.
Ball continues to make an impact on both sides of the floor. His defensive activity on the perimeter is disruptive, and he continually finds passing windows that his teammates on the receiving end didn’t even know were there.
Unfortunately, he can’t hit any shots. Ball has hit just one shot in 12 attempts through two games. That includes tonight, where he registered two points and went 0-4 shooting from the field.
Don’t take Donovan Mitchell for granted. He is one of the very best scorers in the league and should be celebrated as such.
Scoring 15 points on 35 shots is incredibly difficult. However, you wouldn’t have known that from watching this game. Mitchell made everything look easy, including his 11 fourth-quarter points.
The Cavs would’ve easily lost this game if it weren’t for his steady scoring.
