Heartbreak only happens when you put yourself in a position to make it possible.
The Cleveland Cavaliers had their souls crushed by an RJ Barrett three that bounced off the rim multiple times before falling through to give the Toronto Raptors a 112-110 victory and force a Game 7.
The Cavs shouldn’t have been in that position. They didn’t bring the effort and focus they needed to close out a playoff series.
The defensive process was bad for the first three quarters.
Toronto lacks players who can create
advantages for themselves off the dribble, particularly with the absence of Immanuel Quickley and Brandon Ingram.
Still, Cleveland’s defenders couldn’t stay in front of their assignment. And even if they did, one of the other four Cavaliers would find themselves stuck in no-man’s land, where they weren’t committed enough to cut off a drive, weren’t in the gaps to shut down passing lanes, and also weren’t close enough to their assignment to prevent an outside shot.
The Cavs didn’t lose this game in the fourth; they lost it in the first three quarters when plays like this were commonplace. The Raptors connected on 11-27 (40.7%) from beyond the arc through the first three quarters, leading to 91 points overall.
Then, the defense flipped.
Cleveland locked in with the focus they should’ve had from the opening tip. They limited the Raptors to just 12 points in the fourth quarter on 4-17 (23.5%) shooting, which included going 1-7 (14.3%) from three.
It’s easy to look at the offensive outcome and judge how the defense played from there. However, limited scoring doesn’t mean there was good defense and vice versa. In this instance, the Cavs’ defense was actually good.
The help defense successfully cut off drives to the basket, as Toronto attempted just two shots in the restricted area and six in the paint overall. For context, they had an average of 9.3 shots in the paint per quarter before the fourth.
Cleveland did this while being able to rotate back to shooters to either contest outside shots or actually prevent looks from going up entirely.
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The frustrating part isn’t that the Cavs aren’t capable of playing good defense. That would be understandable. It’s that they can’t focus enough mentally or show the willingness needed to actually do so, until it’s nearly too late.
If they supplied anywhere close to this level of effort for an extended stretch at the start of the game, they win this one going away.
Donovan Mitchell deserves the most blame for the loss.
The entire offense, and this era of Cavs’ basketball in general, is built entirely around him. They can’t afford for him to play below his standards for four straight games and expect to easily close out a series.
Once again, Mitchell couldn’t establish anything going toward the basket. Through the first three quarters, Mitchell attempted just six of his 13 shots in the paint and had no free-throw attempts. That can’t happen for someone whose game is built mostly on his explosiveness to the rim.
As with the defense, the frustrating part wasn’t that Mitchell was incapable of getting to the basket. In the fourth quarter and overtime, he attempted seven of his 12 shots in the paint, posting 13 points in that span to put the Cavs in a position to win the game.
Going to the basket is draining, especially against a team that is doing everything within its power to make it difficult to do so. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to try and get there in the first three quarters.
Mitchell’s teams have consistently underperformed in the playoffs, but he’s mostly escaped criticism. Being a high-volume scorer who puts up numbers has allowed him to do so. When you score 35+ points, it’s easy to point to other reasons why the team didn’t get it done.
These playoffs have been a referendum on that notion.
Mitchell’s scoring has completely dried up. Over the last four games of this series, he’s averaged 19.5 points on 37.3% shooting from the floor and 29.4% shooting from three while taking just 1.5 free-throw attempts per game.
The lack of scoring underscores the other parts of Mitchell’s game that aren’t up to snuff. The defense has been horrendous, he’s averaging more turnovers than assists in the last four games, and he doesn’t make an impact as a rebounder. This all adds up to the Cavs getting beaten in the minutes he’s played.
In the last four games of this series, the Cavs have been outscored in Mitchell’s time on the court by a combined 35 points. That comes out to an average of losing his minutes by 8.8 points per game, which included Cleveland being outscored by four in Game 6.
Losing Mitchell’s minutes wasn’t a common occurrence in the regular season. The Cavs outscored their opponents with him on the floor in 49 of the 70 games he played. And when they didn’t, they usually lost, with a record of 5-16 in those situations.
This was the fourth-straight game the Cavs have been outplayed with Mitchell on the floor. Unsurprisingly, that has led to them losing three of those games.
The warts that have held Mitchell back in the postseason have always been there. They were just masked by his incredible scoring.
If you think of the best playoff performers of all-time, they’re all incredibly versatile two-way players who can beat you in a variety of ways on both sides of the ball. That isn’t Mitchell. And until it is, teams that are built around him will continue to fall into the same issues year after year.
This wasn’t James Harden’s best game. He dribbled the air out of the ball a few too many times down the stretch, couldn’t get a couple of clean looks to go late, and had too many careless turnovers. This led to an inefficient 5-14 showing with four giveaways.
Even so, this loss wasn’t on Harden.
Harden has earned his reputation as a playoff underperformer. This game won’t do him any favors in that department. However, his more well-rounded skillset is why the Cavs played their most impressive basketball with him on the court.
There’s more to Harden’s game than just scoring. He set up his teammates well (even though the spacing remains horrid) and should’ve had much more than nine assists. In addition to that, he did an excellent job affecting the game as a rebounder.
Guard rebounding is incredibly important when the margins are this tight. Harden came down with nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end. He led the team in offensive boards, which is the one area the Cavs thoroughly dominated. Cleveland outscored Toronto 22-10 on second-chance points. Harden was a big part of that.
Single-game plus/minus can be misleading, but it sometimes does paint an accurate picture. The Cavs won Harden’s minutes by a game-best 11 points due to the numerous ways he positively influenced the game despite being a poor defender.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson made numerous bad decisions.
Sticking with Max Strus as a starter just hasn’t worked. There are several Cavaliers who’ve gotten lost helping off-ball, few more than Strus. This is part of the reason why the defense has typically struggled with him on the floor.
The starting unit with Dean Wade remains their best lineup. Atkinson went to it late to get back into the game, but maybe things wouldn’t have gotten out of hand if that unit had been given the time they deserved.
Then, there’s the fact that the Cavs wasted their challenge in the first half on a borderline foul that didn’t go their way on review. Having that challenge late would’ve helped as numerous questionable calls didn’t go the Cavs way and influenced the outcome of the game.
Finally, Atkinson’s play calls out of timeouts were bad in overtime. His decision to run their second-to-last possession to Schroder in the backcourt when he knew Toronto was going to foul was a head-scratcher with Mitchell and Harden on your team.
In addition to that, having Evan Mobley, who’s been a bad free-throw shooter for several months on the floor in that situation, also didn’t make sense. He shouldn’t have been in a position to lose the ball late.
And lastly, the final play call didn’t make sense. Using Harden, your second-best offensive player, as the inbounder is questionable. I understand that you want an on-target pass, but you’re taking a prime shooter and decoy off the court. If you want to ensure you get the ball in, you can always use a timeout and have Harden inbound the second attempt.
More importantly, the final play call made no sense. I’m not sure what the desired outcome was, but there was no chance that Mitchell could break free from this designed mess. Settling for an off-balance Mobley three probably wasn’t the ideal outcome there.
Evan Mobley played one of the best games of his career, considering the moment.
The Cavs aren’t in a position to steal this if it weren’t for his efforts on both ends. Mobley continually beat up mismatches inside, took it to the basket when he had an opening to do so, and scored Cleveland’s last nine points of regulation to send the game to overtime. This included hitting a triple with under two minutes left and converting a game-tying finger roll in the final seconds of the fourth.
Cleveland has looked their best this series when Mobley has been involved offensively. Toronto doesn’t have someone who can easily combat his size and quickness. Scottie Barnes is probably the best bet in doing so, but they need him to cover one of the guards. This leaves Mobley free to attack in the post and in space as a cutter.
Mobley’s game doesn’t neatly fit into a number one or two role on a high-level offense. The handle isn’t tight enough for him to be entirely a self-creator. That said, he has constantly found ways to elevate his game in the playoffs after a rough postseason debut against the New York Knicks three years ago.
Still, the building blocks are there for him to grow into more. And even if he doesn’t, he’s proven to be a matchup problem in the playoffs. That’s an incredibly important skill to have in the postseason.
This heartbreak was only possible because the Cavs showed some fight. If they rolled over quietly, like it seemed like they would do midway through the third quarter, this loss might not sting as much.
This game wasn’t lost when Barrett hit the improbable three. The Cavs instead choked it away well before that. They didn’t come out with the energy they needed for a close-out game. Trying to steal it by finally exerting effort in the final 10 minutes like it was the second night of a back-to-back in January wasn’t, and never will be enough, to eliminate a playoff opponent.
So on one hand, the Cavs don’t deserve any credit for fighting back since that was the bare minimum that they could do.
At the same time, if you wanted to take the glass-half-full approach, you’re perfectly capable of doing so. The resilience the Cavs displayed late wasn’t something we’ve seen often in this era. They showed that they could be a high-level defensive team, and if a few more open shots fell down the stretch, the conversation would be entirely different.
We’ll find out which perspective is the right one on Sunday when this era of Cavs basketball is on the line.
