Game Night Observations: Cavs are ready for opening night, Okoro's lack of hesitation, and Garland's stellar defense
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The Cleveland Cavaliers were a bit shorthanded on Wednesday night in the penultimate preseason exhibition, but for the regulars that did play, this was treated more like a regular season game than a meaningless preseason contest. This resulted in a 105-99 victory over the Hawks at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
In each of the first two preseason games against Philadelphia, the starters were finished playing at the end of the third, but Wednesday night was a different story. Starting point guard Darius Garland didn’t check out until roughly three minutes remaining, and Donovan Mitchell played into the fourth quarter, too.
It was a preseason game that certainly had more of a regular season feel to it than the previous two preseason contests against Philadelphia, even if the Cavs were down more guys than in either of the games against Philadelphia.
“Out of the three of them I would say yes,” Mitchell said when asked if this game felt more like the real thing. “That’s nothing against Philly; I think Philly taught us a bunch of things that we can learn and use. But I think tonight with the minutes we played, with the rotations, and obviously guys are out so it’s a little different. But both sides, you take that challenge. You look at Trae [Young], you look at Dejounte [Murray], DG, you look at everybody. That was one of those games where you come in and you’re ready to go.”
Numerous guys on the Cavs have mentioned that they’re ready for the real thing to be here. It’s not less than one week away as the Cavs will be in Toronto for opening night next Wednesday. There’s still one preseason game that’s between now and then, but the Cavs have the feeling of a group that’s anxious to get out there and play in a game that matters.
“I think we are ready. I think we’re all getting a little impatient,” Mitchell said. “I think we’re excited to go, but we can’t overlook tonight, we didn’t. We can’t overlook tomorrow, ‘Oh, let’s just get this over with and get to it.’ We’ve got a test in Orlando. We’ve got to continue to build upon what we did tonight.”
Mitchell isn’t alone in that sentiment, either.
“I'm ready now. I'm tired of preseason games,” Garland said after the team’s shootaround on Wednesday morning. “I'm ready to get into it. I'm ready for some competition and some minutes being played. I’m ready to get out there, I’m tired of not playing a lot of games and full games and coming out in third quarters.”
Being ready for the regular season should come as no surprise. The Cavs finished last season with a bitter taste in their mouths following a tough defeat to these same Atlanta Hawks in the play-in, and the anticipation of this season was only aided by the trade for Mitchell last month.
“I think we're close. I think we're close. We have a few more days to kind of tighten some things up,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Wednesday night. “Still trying to implement some guys who have been missing for a little bit. But I think we've got enough time so that we'll be ready to go.”
A new starter at small forward
One of the biggest question marks surrounding this Cavs team during training camp has been figuring out who will be the team’s starting small forward when the season begins. To date, it looks as if Caris LeVert has the inside track for that position. Everything that has been said publicly about LeVert has been positive and he started the first two preseason games in that spot.
LeVert was given the night off on Wednesday, and Bickerstaff said afterwards it was just a rest situation that LeVert had earned after taking so many reps throughout camp. This opened up the door to see a different starting lineup, and Isaac Okoro took advantage of it.
Okoro certainly had his best night of the preseason on Wednesday, finishing with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including a 2-of-4 mark behind the arc. He also filled up the stat sheet with a pair of rebounds, three assists, and three steals before fouling out in 33 minutes of action.
The offensive production likely won’t be an every night thing with Okoro, especially when the Cavs are healthy. That’s fine, as the Cavaliers don’t need him to score 16 points per game. What the team does need if for Okoro to not hesitate when he has an open shot in front of him. If he does, the Cavaliers could have trouble maximizing what they are on the offensive end.
There were still times on Wednesday night when Okoro did hesitate, but by and large, he was the aggressive, confident version of himself that the Cavs are hoping to see in the regular season, in addition to being one of the better defenders on the floor.
“Sometimes I overthink it,” Okoro said. “There's different games where teams might bluff at me and make me overthink when I'm shooting. But now I just learn to shoot it. Just shoot it with confidence. I know my team has confidence in me so just let it fly.”
The team does have confidence in Okoro in large part due to the work that he’s put into improving. His shot has looked better at times throughout the preseason, and considering he’s routinely one of the first players in the gym, according to Mitchell, that’s a very welcomed sign.
“I told him this whole time, i don't care if you miss 10, you shoot it with confidence, because he's the first one in the gym working on his threes,” Mitchell said. “He's been the first one I've seen every time I come in and I try to get there early. He's continuously working on his shot, you know. That's where the trust comes in from us. He's running the floor, shooting it right away. That's the biggest thing that I've taken away.”
Perimeter defense
One of the reasons the Cavs failed to qualify for the playoffs last April was because Atlanta’s Trae Young delivered blow after blow on the offensive end of the floor in the play-in game. The Cavs didn’t have an answer or a way to stop him, and it cost them.
The stakes were much, much lower on Wednesday night, but defensively they played much better.
In that play-in game, Young finished with 38 points on 13-of-25 shooting and nine assists in 40 minutes. On Wednesday night Young played 34 minutes for the Hawks and finished with 14 points on 3-of-17 shooting, six assists, and six turnovers.
Garland was a big reason as to why that was the case.
“I think Darius, to have to carry such a load, was absolutely fantastic,” Bickerstaff said. “The way that he got into him, he guarded him all night long, that was his matchup. Our big guys did a great job of supporting him, because that is not an easy one-on-one job for anybody. But I think it was a real great team effort to go out and try to slow him down as best we possibly could.”
In addition to Garland’s 23 points and 12 assists, he added in three steals on the defensive end. The Cavs aren’t asking or expecting Garland to be named to an All-Defense team any time soon, but having nights like this defensively can be part of the equation in taking this Cavs team from very good to great.
"I gotta say Darius Garland played a phenomenal today, taking that challenge with Trae Young and also being able to do it on the offensive end," Mitchell said. "That's big time for us."
