Cavaliers guard Darius Garland and Nets guard Kyrie Irving. ESPN Cleveland/Rob Lorenzo
Game Night Observations: A playoff test, corner threes, and DG's big night
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.comThere has been quite a bit of growth for the Cleveland Cavaliers so far this season. They’ve ascended as high as third in the Eastern Conference and were tied for the most wins in the NBA as recent as last week.
Monday night was a reminder of how far they have to grow still as the Cavs lost to the Brooklyn Nets 125-117. It was a game that the Nets showed up for like it was a playoff game, and it took the Cavaliers a little bit to adjust to that feeling. By time they did, it was too late.
“Certain games to certain people mean more and they raise their level during the regular season,” Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “They wanted to take this to a playoff-type mentality and those are things we have to learn. We have to adjust to start the game and not wait to give our best shot until the third quarter.”
The issue for the Cavs wasn’t that they couldn’t play at the same level as the Nets. The issue was that it took them too long to figure out what that level was. The Nets threw the first punch on Monday, and may have thrown the biggest punch just before half when they closed out the second quarter on a 21-6 run after the Cavs made it a 44-43 game. The Cavaliers were able to find answers and counters to a good amount of the things Brooklyn was doing, it just took them a little bit too long.
“I believe we can play with these teams,” Bickerstaff said. “I think we did enough to give me confidence in that. I think we just waited too long to believe we could. You allow a team to get out to a lead like we did and it’s going to be difficult to come back and you have to be almost perfect. You look at the second half, we outscored them both quarters.”
It wasn’t that the Cavs played poorly on offense, although there are certainly things that need to be improved upon. It wasn’t that the Cavs played awful on defense, either. The Nets just played better. This game has the chance to serve as a moment for the Cavaliers to realize how much more growth there needs to be if they want to get to where they ultimately want to go. There has been a stated goal from Bickerstaff that the team should be playing it’s best basketball at the end of the season.
That’s what the Cavs – and every team in the NBA – should be striving for. The Nets – armed with Kevin Durant and former Cavs guard Kyrie Irving scoring 32 points each – helped to show them what they’re aiming for looks like.
A problem in the corners
The Cavaliers aren’t a team that hunts the corner 3-pointer nearly as often as most teams in the NBA. There are some offenses that are built around creating that shot and other offenses that will take all they can get but have other things they rely more heavily on. It is analytically regarded as one of the most efficient shots in basketball, trailing only dunks/layups and free throws, which explains why teams hunt it as often as they do.
Cleveland ranks 24th in the NBA in corner 3-pointers attempted this season, according to Cleaning The Glass, with 8.1% of the team’s shots falling under that category. The Cavs attempt on 37.1% of their attempts from the corner, which is 22nd in the NBA. It’s not something they’re particularly good at, which explains why they don’t shoot a ton of them.
The issue for the Cavs isn’t in the ability to generate them, as they attempted 14 corner 3-pointers against the Nets. The issue is that players that are taking them. It’s not players like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland – who are regarded as viable threats from the outside. It’s not even players like Caris LeVert or Cedi Osman who are players that teams will hesitate to leave open in that spot.
The open corner 3-point looks are mostly going to Lamar Stevens and Isaac Okoro, neither of whom strike any fear into opposing defenses when they’re attempted a 3-pointer from that area. It’s gotten to the point where the other team will use that players defender to help clog the paint and make things more difficult for the other four players on offense. At times, it’s like the Cavs are playing four-on-five on that end of the floor.
Against the Nets, the Cavs only made four of their 14 attempts from the corners. Stevens was 2-of-4, Okoro missed both his attempts, and Evan Mobley missed all three that he took as well. None of those looks were tightly contested ones either. They’re looks the Nets were more than willing to give up.
“Keep shooting. Keep shooting,” Mitchell said of defenses sagging off of Okoro and Stevens. “Don't matter. Like I said, [Okoro and Stevens] work on their shot. They were the first ones in the gym today after Christmas, I'm pretty sure they were there on Christmas. Continuously working at it.
It’s the area of the offense the Cavaliers most need to fix right now. If that gets figured out – whether it be internally or with an external upgrade – it has the ability to transform Cleveland’s offense to the next level.
Hat tip to DG
The biggest reason why the Cavaliers were ability to keep clawing their way back into this game late was the play of Garland. He was in total control of the game on the offensive end on his way to a game-high 46 points.
It was a night where Garland had everything working for him. He was a very efficient 14-of-20 from the floor, connected on five 3-pointers, and took a season-high 15 free throws. On a night he shared the floor with Durant and Irving, he had the most impressive night offensively.
“I mean, that's the Darius we all know. He's shown on multiple nights he's capable of having nights like this,” Mitchell said of Garland’s performance. “And now you're seeing he's putting together really, really solid games and then you have explosions like tonight.”
