What is the story about?
It
wasn’t pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers did enough to pull out a 120-116 win over an Indiana Pacers team that is now on a 13-game losing streak.
The stats in the table below are from Cleaning the Glass.
Now, let’s dive into some of the stats.
- Darius Garland’s 14 fourth-quarter points on 7-7 shooting saved the Cavs. He pulled them back into the game by getting on the board early in the fourth, and then closed it with 10 straight points over the final few minutes to put the game away. Every time the Cavs needed someone to step up on offense, he did so. It was truly a masterful offensive display from Garland down the stretch.
- Garland’s 14 points in the fourth quarter are the most he’s scored in a quarter this season. His previous high in a quarter this season was 13, which he’s achieved twice. This is the most he’s scored in the final quarter since the March 11 comeback win over the Brooklyn Nets last season.
- Garland’s 29 points are his second-most this season. It was the fourth time he’s eclipsed 25 points in a game. The Cavs are now 2-2 when he scores 25 or more points and 4-4 when he scores 20 or more.
- Garland went 11-15 (73.3%) on midrange shots. He connected on 8-11 from the short midrange and 3-4 on long midrange jumpers. This accounted for 22 of his 29 points. Garland took only four shots in both the restricted area and from three.
- Garland had six assists to no turnovers. There’s extra defensive attention on Garland when he’s playing without Donovan Mitchell. He handled that well from a ball security standpoint as well.
- The Cavs won their second game of the season without Donovan Mitchell. He missed Tuesday’s game for rest. They’re now 2-2 when he doesn’t play. The Cavs have gone as Mitchell has this season. Coming into Tuesday’s game, they’ve been 14.9 points better per 100 possessions when Mitchell is on the court (97th percentile). Without him, they’ve been outscored by 7.4 points per 100 possessions (20th percentile). Even though it was a somewhat ugly game, it’s always encouraging to see the Cavs get a victory without Mitchell.
- The Cavaliers only mustered a 115.4 offensive rating (51st percentile). This is an average offense, but the Pacers are a bad defensive team. They came into this game 24th in defensive rating (119). This was only the second time in their last seven games that they’ve held their opponent under a 116 offensive rating.
- Cleveland’s inability to control the ball with 19 turnovers is why the offense struggled. They turned it over on 18.3% of their offensive possessions (20th percentile). This led to Indiana winning the points off turnovers battle 21-12. This is why the game was as close as it was.
- Thirteen of the Cavs’ 19 turnovers came from three players: De’Andre Hunter (five), Evan Mobley (four), and Craig Porter Jr. (four).
- The Cavs’ rim defense was impressive again as they held the Pacers to 52.2% shooting in the restricted area (9th percentile). This has been a recurring trend. They’ve been in the 85th percentile or better in opponent field-goal percentage at the rim in their last six games. This is why the defense has been trending upward in recent weeks.
- Cleveland limited Indiana in the open court as they were -0.5 in points added in transition (25th percentile). The Pacers want to play fast, even though they haven’t been effective at doing so this season with Tyrese Haliburton. The Cavs made sure that they kept them from getting out on the fastbreak on Tuesday, which is one of the things they absolutely needed to do to win this game.
- Craig Porter Jr. stuffed the stat sheet with a near triple-double. He seemed to be everywhere on the court as he finished with eight points, nine assists, nine rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. Porter has continually shown this season that he can positively impact the game in a wide variety of ways. This was another impressive performance.
- The Cavs tied a season low with 26 three-point attempts. They’ve now won both games where they’ve attempted 26 threes and are 5-1 when they take 35 or fewer triples. Conversely, they’re 2-6 when they attempt over 50. The Cavs shot 10-26 (38.5%) from beyond the arc on Tuesday.
- Sam Merrill went 6-10 from three. All but one of Merrill’s 19 points came from a three-point shot.
