The Cleveland Cavaliers did enough to escape with a 118-111 win over an undermanned Golden State Warriors team.
Max Strus’s timely shotmaking saved the Cavs. He poured in 24 points on 6-10 shooting from deep. That included scoring eight in the fourth quarter and burying two threes in the closing minutes to put the game away.
The Cavs have so much offensive firepower in the starting five of Strus, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. Strus can get lost in the shuffle with his off-ball movement and the attention the dynamic guards demand. The Cavs were able to find Strus enough late and ultimately secured the victory because of it.
This is a much more well-rounded offensive attack when they’re able to get this level of contributions from a proven playoff performer like Strus. He’s rounding into form at the right time as he’s combined to go 17-28 (60.7%) from three over his last three outings.
Overall, the late-game offensive execution since the Harden trade has been impressive. It was again here as the Cavs generated quality looks seemingly every time down the court.
The Cavaliers are doing this without any one player dominating the ball. Harden was orchestrating the offense late once again, but he wasn’t controlling possessions. Every member of the starting five scored four or more points in the final frame, with each scoring critical baskets to help put the game away.
More importantly, this five-man group has good playmakers for their position at every spot. When they create advantages — as Harden is known for doing — everyone on the court can capitalize on it by finding the open man.
This pass from Mobley is a great example of that. The Warriors showed help defense on Harden at the top of the arc. He found the open man in Mobley. And when the defense rotated over to prevent a shot at the rim, Mobley located Strus alone in the corner.
The ball is always faster than the man. Even if the defense does make the right play initially, if you’re moving the ball as efficiently as the Cavs have been in the clutch, you’re eventually going to find a crack in the armor.
The best offenses are often the most well-rounded and diverse. The Cavs have shown over the last several weeks that they can dissect opposing defense in a variety of ways, and did so again here.
Free-throw shooting is a concern for the bigs. Mobley’s struggles at the line have been well documented over the last month. He didn’t get many chances to prove himself at the charity stripe here, but he missed both opportunities he had.
Allen did a good job of aggressively attacking the defense, which led to him taking 12 free throws. The only problem was that he made just six of them.
There’s not much to really dive into with missed free throws. They aren’t fun to talk about, and there typically isn’t an easy fix for them. If they were, LeBron James would’ve figured it out a decade and a half ago.
That said, the margins in the playoffs will be incredibly thin. The Cavs don’t have the luxury of leaving points at the line, and they also can’t have their bigs hesitant to attack because they don’t want to take free throws.
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Injuries have held the Cavs back all season, and still are.
Even though Cleveland had their four best players on the court together — which has been a rare sighting this season — you can still see that they aren’t close to being whole considering who’s still out of the lineup.
The Cavs were without Dean Wade (ankle) and Jaylon Tyson (toe). And while neither would be considered among the best five players on the team, the lineups that head coach Kenny Atkinson has been forced to use without those two forwards have been rough.
The four guard lineups simply don’t work. Point of attack defense is an issue when the team is fully healthy. Combine that with two players being asked to guard up a position as well, and there are too many holes to clean up for whichever lone big is on the floor.
Additionally, your defense is always just one switch away from a terrible mismatch. The Warriors used this to their advantage as they consistently forced smaller guards onto Kristaps Porzingis and then allowed him to work from there in the high post.
These groupings with four players that are 6’5” or under need to be potent offensively to make up for their shortcomings on the other end. And to their credit, they have been solid. But there’s a difference between spreading the floor out because you have wings and bigs who can create space and doing so with guards.
For one, these four guard lineups don’t have the multiple big screen setters you need to make Atkinson’s motion offense work. And while the Cavs do a lot of guard screening actions already, that is more of a changeup than a fastball.
Despite how much the NBA has changed over the last decade, positions still matter. Or at the very least, having size and a variety of skills does.
Right now, the Cavs don’t have any better options than to continue running these small lineups.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin hasn’t been able to replicate his early-season success much over the past several weeks. Teams know that he isn’t a threat to beat them with his outside shot, which makes it more difficult for him to get to the basket, and in turn cramps the spacing.
Thomas Bryant is the other forward who has shown that he deserves minutes, but he’s a center. That makes it difficult to play him alongside Jarrett Allen.
Atkinson hasn’t been willing to look outside of those options for minutes. Larry Nance Jr. hasn’t played consistent rotation minutes since the beginning of the season. There’s an argument that one of the three two-way players who are forwards should get an opportunity, but since none are eligible for the playoffs on their current deals, it’s not worth seriously exploring.
Getting Wade and/or Tyson back will help. These lineups will have much more size and versatility on both sides of the floor. That will drastically improve how this all looks.
At the same time, how incoherent these lineups are underscores the fragility of the current roster construction.
There are no perfect teams in this new parity era (except the Oklahoma City Thunder). Everyone has holes (again, except OKC). And with the speed of the game, you can’t just play six or seven guys in the playoffs and expect to get by. True contenders need to and can comfortably trot out nine at a minimum.
Health will play a significant role in determining the eventual champion. Not being able to cover up for multiple rotation players isn’t necessarily alarming on its own. At the same time, nothing about what we’ve seen this past week would make you believe the Cavs can compensate for missing either or both Wade and Tyson. That’s a scary place to be and isn’t ideal for the most expensive roster in the league.
