CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers are still a work in progress. There were stretches of clunky offense and unfocused defense. Neither cost the Cavs as they came away with a 118-113 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in their home opener.
Sam Merrill has “probably been our best player” according to head coach Kenny Atkinson. That isn’t true, but Merrill has played exceptionally well. He was great again on Sunday as he registered 17 points on 4-9 shooting from deep while being a game-high +17.
This performance
wasn’t an outlier. Merrill recorded 22 and 19 points in the previous two games. He’s now connected on 51.7% of his threes through three games.
That’s not bad.
More impressively, Merrill has continued to establish himself as a good defensive player.
“He was one of our best defenders last year, and he’s showing it again this year,” Donovan Mitchell said.
Maybe it’s hyperbolic to say he’s one of their best defenders. The Cavs do have some of the best front-court defenders in the league. But he has come a long way from being thought of as a defensive liability earlier in his career.
“I’ve always felt like I could guard my position,” Merrill said. “You have to prove it over and over, but I have gotten better, gotten stronger, more experienced guarding guys like this [by] getting into better shape.”
Getting stronger isn’t something that can be overlooked. This has allowed Merrill to be much more physical at the point of attack. This has turned what were previously defensive fouls into good contests.
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Merrill’s shooting has changed the starting lineup. His lethal outside shot has provided a level of “havoc,” according to Mitchell, that is otherwise absent. It’s truly difficult to stick with offensive players as dynamic as Mitchell, Evan Mobley, De’Andre Hunter, while also keeping an eye on Merrill.
Some bench scorers can lose effectiveness when they aren’t the focal point of the offense when they shift to the starting lineup. Someone like Merrill — who does nearly all of his work off-ball — is the opposite. His shooting only gets better the more talent you surround him with.
The Cavs aren’t going to keep Merrill in the starting lineup once Darius Garland returns, but tying more of his minutes with groupings of Mitchell and Mobley would make a lot of sense.
Merrill didn’t agree with his coach’s assessment of him as “probably the team’s best player.” He brushed off the question when asked about his thoughts on Atkinson’s comment.
“He’s probably not right,” Merrill said. “We have guys that have a lot more difficult roles. But, obviously, I’m glad that he sees it. I’m not just making shots, but trying to make winning plays.”
The Cavs can’t keep giving up leads like this. Cleveland was up 25 in the second half against the Brooklyn Nets and allowed them to cut it to a one-point deficit. On Sunday, the Cavs were up 18 in the third quarter and allowed Milwaukee to tie it up. And if you remember correctly, this was a trend against the Indiana Pacers in the second round last year.
The proliferation of the three-ball is going to make runs like this more possible than a decade ago. However, great teams — which is what the Cavs are trying to be — can’t make giving up big leads this much of a habit.
Milwaukee’s zone gave Cleveland issues. The offense came to a grinding halt in the third quarter. They went from attacking to just attempting jumpers against the zone.
The Cavs shot 8-10 in the restricted area in the first two quarters to attempting just three shots at the rim in the third. This was coupled with shooting 2-12 from deep and turning it over seven times in the third quarter when Milwaukee first started playing the zone.
Zone defenses are a great change of pace, but it’s little more than that. Even the very best zone teams don’t do it well enough to reasonably shut down good offenses for extended stretches.
The Cavs were just unprepared. They looked like they had never seen a zone before and didn’t have many counters besides shooting over it. That can’t be your only way to combat a zone.
To their credit, the Cavs did respond in the fourth quarter. They did a better job of playmaking from the center of the court, which is one of the best ways to counter a 2-3 zone. It just shouldn’t have taken this long to make some kind of adjustment.
“The zone got us out of our rhythm and then we started making it up on our own,” Atkinson said. “We kind of forgot what we did against the zone last year. … That was part of the clunkiness of our offense.”
Playing poorly against the zone didn’t cost them here, but it’s something they’ll undoubtedly be tested with again throughout the season. We’ll see if they respond better next time.
The Cavs really missed De’Andre Hunter. Cleveland needs all the play initiators that they can get with Garland still out of the lineup. Having an additional starter who can do something as simple as running a pick-and-roll or taking their man off the dribble has been sorely missed.
Hunter gives the Cavs a height advantage that they haven’t had throughout the core four era. They’ve often been stuck between being too small on defense because of their backcourt and too clunky on offense with an oversized front court. Mobley’s evolution and Atkinson’s motion offense have solved most of these issues on the offensive end. Still, you’d like to take advantage of the height you have up front more.
Adding Hunter to the mix makes that unit feel much bigger. The Bucks started the game with Gary Trent Jr. on Hunter. Hunter is two inches taller based on their listed heights. On the court, it felt like much more.
Hunter was able to crash inside for offensive rebounds, post him up, and simply shoot over Trent. On the other end, the Cavs were able to throw much more length at Giannis Antetokounmpo (although it didn’t do much to stop him) than they’ve been able to do in previous iterations of the starting lineup.
Antetokounmpo is playing at an MVP level. The Bucks were at a severe talent disadvantage, and Cleveland’s frontline is designed to make things difficult for him. Still, he found a way to enforce his will by relentlessly attacking the basket in transition and in the halfcourt as he finished with a near 40-point triple-double.
Milwaukee doesn’t have a good enough team at the moment to be a championship contender. That said, you can’t count them out of any game when they have the best player on the court by this wide a margin.
Craig Porter Jr. is doing a better job of being a hustle specialist. He’s been picking up his defensive assignment in the backcourt since the preseason. It’s part of an emphasis to slow opposing offenses down. On Sunday, you could see the vision of what that looks like at its best.
Porter has struggled doing this in previous outings. He’s let opposing guards beat him in the backcourt, which has led to easy baskets once in the half-court. That didn’t happen against Milwaukee. Porter was disruptive, notched three steals, and was impactful on both sides of the ball.
This was the blueprint for him being a quality backup point guard.
Lonzo Ball has ended his cold shooting. He went 2-4 from deep and 4-7 from the field for 11 points. This is on top of providing his usual good defense and exceptional playmaking.
Anything Ball can give you in the scoring column feels like a bonus.
The Cavs are drawing up late-game sideline out-of-bounds plays for Mobley in fouling situations. Atkinson did so twice. Mobley made both free throws, but he isn’t necessarily the person I would be drawing those plays up for when he’s sharing the floor with Mitchell, Hunter, and Merrill.
That said, it’s good to see that he’s an able and willing option. And Mobley more than did his part on Sunday as he knocked down all 12 of his free-throw attempts.
Rebounding wasn’t an issue. Atkinson mentioned that this team does a good job of implementing the emphasis of the day. Against the Nets, it was getting Jarrett Allen more involved. Here, it was cleaning the defensive glass.
The Cavs outscored the Bucks 8-14 in second-chance points. Milwaukee grabbed just nine offensive rebounds, with most of them being a result of Antetokounmpo grabbing his own missed shots.
Cleveland played a lot more drop coverage on screens. This kept their bigs closer to the rim on the defensive end. That helped. We’ll see if this strategy continues when they face another dynamic guard.
Mitchell continues to save his best for the fourth quarter. The Cavs needed someone to pull the offense out of the mud in the second half. Mitchell did that as he poured in 10 points in the fourth quarter on 5-7 shooting. It was reminiscent of what he did against Brooklyn on Friday.
The Cavs don’t want or need Mitchell to control the offense for 48 minutes. One of their main goals this season is to have Mitchell fresh for the playoffs, which isn’t something they’ve necessarily done a good job of since he’s been with the team.
They do, however, need Mitchell to carry them over the finish line on nights like this. And once again, he answered the bell.
