The Cleveland Cavaliers did enough to win their second game in as many nights. They defeated a good Charlotte Hornets team 118-113 to capture their seventh victory in a row.
The Cavs need Jarrett Allen to play at this level. He’s shown these past few weeks that this team is at its very best when he’s actively involved in the offense. That came through once again as he put up 26 points on 11-15 shooting to go along with 14 big rebounds.
I’ve generally been skeptical of reading too deeply into how the Cavs’ record correlates with Allen’s shot attempts or scoring output. Causation doesn’t always mean there’s a correlation.
Additionally, it’s common for stats like this to be misleading. For example, football teams typically have a worse record when they attempt more than a certain number of passes. This isn’t because passing is ineffective or bad. It’s just that teams that are behind in a game have to pass more often than those that are winning. This leads to stats like this being skewed.
That’s how I’ve typically viewed Allen’s production numbers. And I was wrong for doing so.
Allen’s rim pressure just opens up the offense for everyone. This was clear in the string of games before they got James Harden. Now, it’s even harder to ignore after they traded for one of the best pick-and-roll distributors of all-time.
The Cavs’ biggest problem was not getting Allen involved enough. That hasn’t been an issue with Harden. Passes like this force Allen to be aggressive. He simply has no other choice.
When Allen is beating you like this, defenses can’t send two to the screen and hope the rotation stops the roller. However, not doing so opens up looks for the ball handler, like this clean pull-up three for Harden.
Allen is the big the offense should prioritize first.
Evan Mobley being in the lineup has the potential to make things more difficult, even though that didn’t happen on Thursday against a bad Brooklyn Nets team. He’s another center who needs to be fed in a similar way to be effective offensively.
That said, Allen should be the main target over Mobley. His screening and the rim pressure he provides — as we’ve seen these past several weeks — are much more valuable offensively. There’s simply no excuse for ignoring Allen after this many strong showings.
Outside shooting teams like the Hornets can give the Cavs problems defensively. Charlotte head coach Charles Lee came from the Boston Celtics, and a lot of his team’s offensive philosophies trace back to his time in Boston. How Charlotte and Boston generate threes is different, but the amount they take and how they do a good job of rebounding misses is similar.
The Cavs didn’t do a great job of defending the three-point line. The Hornets got back into this game by going 8-15 from distance in the third quarter. They were able to generate open outside shots with simple guard screening actions or by forcing the defense to collapse and then found the open shooter as a result.
Cleveland’s defensive philosophy is predicated on defending the basket. This is a sound strategy and ultimately the right one. Scoring in the restricted area is still the most effective way of doing so. And in this game, the Cavs did a great job of keeping the Hornets from getting there as Charlotte converted just 43.5% of their shots at the rim (1st percentile).
That said, teams like Charlotte and Boston don’t necessarily attack the basket because they want to score. They do so because they want to create in rhythm threes.
This is an area where the starting backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Harden are suseptable. Neither is good at keeping their defensive assignment in front of them. Their teammates know this and are ready and prepared to rotate over to help, which can lead to open shooters on the perimeter.
Charlotte lost this game because they went cold in the fourth quarter and ended up converting just 35.7% of their 56 three-point shots. However, many of those misses were more due to shot variance than anything the Cavs were doing defensively.
The Cavs have struggled on the glass against teams that know how to rebound their missed threes.
Charlotte racked up 23 offensive boards. Nine of those were due to Ryan Kalkbrenner being an immovable object inside. There’s not much you can do about someone that big. However, they also retrieved a fair amount of their missed threes that didn’t have as much to do with him. That’s more of a concern.
Missed threes can bounce further off the rim. If you want to grab those, a good place to run is to the free-throw line. Kenny Atkinson, when he has been asked about this in the past, has said that you need good rebound spacing against teams that shoot this many threes. The Cavs didn’t have that.
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The Hornets were rewarded for their efforts on the glass with 37-second chance points.
These two concerns are why the Celtics are the worst playoff matchup for the Cavs. Boston also hunts threes and prioritizes offensive rebounding, but they’re overall more talented on both sides of the ball. On top of that, they have one of the best coaches in the league. I don’t want to get too derailed by this tangent, but it’s worth pointing out after a game like this.
Harden and Sam Merrill have developed great chemistry. Merrill hit four shots against Charlotte, and three of them were assisted by Harden.
Like Allen, Merrill was seemingly created in a lab to play with Harden. He’s a smart off-ball mover who knows where to be to create the best angle for a pass. He’s also great at attacking off screens. Throw in Harden’s ability to make every pass and process the game at a high level, and you have a formidable duo.
I’m not sure why you would double-team Harden.
The Hornets tried to force the ball out of Harden’s hands late. He accepted the double, found the outlet in Mitchell, and then this led to an open three for Dean Wade. This was a great and well-executed sequence from Cleveland’s perspective.
The Cavs have consistently handled Harden being trapped well. They’ve properly spaced the floor, and Harden has made the right play seemingly every time.
Keon Ellis is incredibly entertaining to watch defensively. Few players have his energy, lateral quickness, and nose for the ball. This combination creates someone who’s both a sound man defender and is also a chaos agent who can seemingly come out of nowhere to completely blow up a play.
So far, Ellis has registered at least two stocks (blocks and steals) in the six games he’s played with the Cavs. On Friday, he collected two steals by baiting his opponent into a pass that he knew he could take away.
Players who gamble for steals and blocks like this don’t always lead to their team playing better defense. Typically, you need to gamble too much to do so. But it isn’t a gamble for someone who has Ellis’s length and quickness.
Not counting Friday’s game, Cleveland has registered an impressive 108.9 defensive rating with Ellis on the floor, which is only going to get better after the Cavs had an 87.5 defensive rating in the 24 minutes Ellis played in Charlotte.
“He’s maybe the most unique player,” Atkinson said after the game. “[He’s] totally not what I thought. [He’s a] unique, unique player. Sometimes he gets a deflection, and you don’t even see how it happens. His hands are so fast. … He’s a quick jumper off the floor to get contests. … Man, what a unique player. Really a game changer.”
