Game Night Observations: Winning without Mitchell and Garland, and dominating in the paint
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.comThe Cleveland Cavaliers won their fourth straight game on Wednesday night as they beat the Detroit Pistons 113-85 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavs didn’t have Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland in the win, but continued the aggressive approach that had led to this four-game winning streak anyways. Since head coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke about the positivity surrounding the team for nearly four minutes last Wednesday, the Cavs have played some of their best basketball of the season.
When the Cavs lost to Miami last Tuesday 100-97, it brought out quite a bit of frustration. That frustration has now been turned into aggressiveness and consistency.
“That's what we've been talking about as a group. The guys recognize it. I mean, it's been the difference and it's night and day to see it,” Bickerstaff said Wednesday after the win. “You don't play with the emotional rollercoaster, right? The teams that win are the teams that are the most steady and the most consistent. You want to play to your standard and play to what level you're capable of. But can you get there and stay there? And I think that's what our guys are figuring out is there's an intensity that you have to play with that keeps you here.”
Even though three of the last four games that the Cavs have won haven’t come against teams that would be considered playoff contenders, there is a noticeable difference in the team’s approach. The Cavs jumped out to an 18-point lead in the first quarter in a game they never trailed against the Pistons. Even once things started to slip early in the second half, the team was able to refocus and turn what was just a two-point lead with 4:02 remaining in the third quarter to a 30-point lead with 4:43 left in the fourth quarter.
“We started the lock in again,” center Jarrett Allen said. “I think in that second quarter, we started to waver against what was putting us up in the first place. And then they kept on getting back. We didn't get our, how we usually play, and then we finally locked in and said that we're going to finish this game.”
If the Cavaliers are going to get to the places they want to go, this level of consistency that’s been shown during this four-game winning streak needs to stick, and the level of aggressiveness does too.
Raul Neto to the rescue
The Cavs winning this game without Mitchell and Garland available while Ricky Rubio remains on a minutes restriction as he recovers from a torn left ACL meant that a big night was needed from reserve point guard Raul Neto.
Neto delivered just that with 14 points and eight assists in nearly 36 minutes in his first start of the season. This comes after Neto hasn’t been featured in the rotation since Rubio made his season debut in mid-January. Wednesday night was the first time that Neto has played more than eight minutes in a game that Rubio was active for. The majority of his playing time over the last month has been closing out games that the outcome has already been decided in.
Even through all that, Neto was ready for the moment.
“He was awesome. He is the personification of professionalism,” Bickerstaff said. “He can go weeks without stepping on the floor, but whenever his number is called, he's always ready to go. I've got so much respect for that dude just because of his approach.”
Not knowing when the next opportunity is going to come can be a challenge in the NBA. That’s the reality of the role Neto plays right now.
“I actually didn't know I was going to play until this morning at shootaround during film. But all the work I've put until then made me ready for the opportunity,” Neto said. “I haven't played for a while and then come out and play that many minutes is just hard on my body, but I put the work in and try to stay ready for that.”
Neto brings a certain grittiness to the floor defensively. He routinely picks up opponents 94 feet away from the basket and creates as much chaos as he can. It’s something that has a clear frustrating effect on the opposition. There have been multiple instances this season of him swiping a lazy inbounds pass after the Cavs have made a basket, with the latest example happening on Wednesday.
Paint domination
The biggest reason that the Cavs were able to control this game was the absolute domination they had inside the paint. Allen finished the night with 20 points and 14 rebounds while Evan Mobley had 19 points and eight rebounds.
Overall, the Cavs outscored the Pistons 70-32 in the painted area, marking the third time this season the team has reached the 70-point mark in that area.
A tough week
The opponents on the schedule for this week aren’t the most daunting that the team will face all year. They’ve won their last three games against a trio of teams that features just one team that currently holds a play-in spot in the Pacers. The next two games – at New Orleans, vs. Chicago – feature two play-in teams as well.
That’s not exactly a murderers’ row.
What is difficult about the week is that the Cavaliers are in the midst of their only stretch of playing five games in seven days during this season. The team swept a back-to-back against Indiana and Washington on Sunday and Monday, beat Detroit on Wednesday, and has a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday night, with the first game coming in New Orleans and the second coming at home against the Bulls. That only becomes more daunting when mentioning that Friday night’s game is a 10 p.m. Eastern Time tipoff.
“You know it's gonna be a long week,” Allen said on Wednesday morning after shootaround.
The Cavs having two games that start just 22 hours apart while having a two-hour flight in the middle of the night to wrap up the week is a tough break on the schedule.
That upcoming schedule quirk is part of the reason it made sense to allow Mitchell and Garland the night off to continue to recover from injuries that have been nagging them. It’s not as if those two not playing on Wednesday night alleviates the fact that the Cavs do play two back-to-backs in a week, but it does give Mitchell and Garland three days between them, extending the recovery period.
There’s no guarantee that every healthy player is available for both ends of the back-to-back this weekend. With it being such a tight turnaround between the two games, there may be reason to sit someone in one of the games, but the Cavs earning a win while Mitchell and Garland rested was the best thing for them on Wednesday night.
