Practice Notebook: Playoff practice, LeVert's shooting, and Allen's potential return
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.com. You can find him on Twitter at @RealDCunningham. NEW YORK – The Cleveland Cavaliers are set to play their third two-game series of the season starting on Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets. This comes after the team previously played a pair of games in Miami against the Heat and a pair of games in Charlotte against the Hornets earlier this month.
These games serve as an opportunity for the Cavs to simulate playoff preparation. In addition to attacking each game individually, it’s an opportunity for the team to make adjustments to what happened in the first game, as well as make adjustments to the expected adjustments that the opponent may make.
There isn’t a way for the playoffs to be simulated before they arrive, but this is one way to continue to find a playoff-like mindset in terms of the preparation.
“I think it's the preparation, being able to see your opponent, make adjustments and then see your opponent again and understand what the mindset of your opponent is and the adjustments that they're going to make, and then how quickly you can solve those on the fly, which again, I think is great practice for us,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after practice on Monday.
Each of these mini-series can bring forth different challenges. The games against Miami certainly brought forth the most intense atmosphere, the games against Charlotte were a test of keeping focused, and the two games this week in Brooklyn will be against the best team that the Cavs have a two-game date with.
Additionally, the Cavs are now at the point in the year with nine regular season games remaining when they should be playing their best basketball leading up to the playoffs. The team is all but locked into a matchup with the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs. How that matchup appears from the outside has a lot to do with how the Cavs look over the last few weeks of the year.
“I think we're working towards it,” Bickerstaff said when asked if the team is playing its best basketball. “I think we have a clear understanding of who we are and what we need to do to be effective, and it's a matter of putting it together for long stretches, and I think we've done that.”
Caris LeVert’s continued success
One reason for the recent success of the Cavs has been the play of Caris LeVert. I wrote in more detail about how good he has been lately and how it relates to him being a winning player and being content doing the little things that the Cavs need in order to succeed.
Part of that has been LeVert’s ability to make 3-pointers at a better rate in the month of March.
This month, LeVert is shooting 46.7 percent on 3-point attempts, including a 44.2 percent mark on catch-and-shoot attempts. Last month, LeVert struggled shooting the ball from deep, shooting just 21.7 percent. That number being up greatly helps the Cavs on the offensive end of the floor.
“He's used to being the guy that has to create and create his own shot, but I think he did a great job of, again, fitting into what the team need is and when you have the Donovan’s and Darius of the world with the ball in their hand, a lot was going to come to him in catch-and-shoot opportunities, so I think he just prepared himself for that,” Bickerstaff said.
If LeVert continues to shoot the ball with this much success, the Cavs become a much more dangerous team in the postseason, not just in the first round, but should they advance any further.
“I think just getting more consistent with my looks. I think obviously your numbers would be more consistent when you kind of know where your shots are coming from and I think that's kind of been just a result of being healthy,” LeVert said. “I think in years past I've kind of missed games. This is the most games I played since my second year, so just being consistently on the court, knowing where your shots are going to come from, I think that has made a huge difference for me just in my shooting numbers for sure.”
Jarrett Allen’s status
There’s a chance the Cavs are whole again on Tuesday night. Center Jarrett Allen has missed each of the last four games after injuring his right eye in the team’s second road game in Miami earlier this month.
Allen went through practice with the team on Monday before departing for Brooklyn and then was listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game.
“We miss his spirit. He's a guy who leads in a different way, but he leads nonetheless and guys love to follow him,” Bickerstaff said of Allen. “The effort that he plays with on the floor is contagious and guys follow that. And then obviously the basketball piece defensively, what he does to protect the rim, how he helps us rebound, how he helps anchor our defense.”
If Allen does play on Tuesday night, Bickerstaff did not commit to whether or not he would be on a minutes restriction, rather it being more of a wait and see situation.
Elsewhere in The Big Apple
While the Cavs weren’t in action in New York on Monday, they did get some good news in the Big Apple when the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks losing on Monday pushes them three games behind the Cavs in the standings with both teams having just nine games remaining on the schedule, including one game against each other at the end of this month.
Right now, it would be fairly surprising if the two teams didn’t see each other in the first round of the playoffs next month, with one team finishing fourth and the other team finishing fifth. Obviously, with fourth places comes having home court advantage in that series.
After Monday, a combination of seven Cleveland wins, and New York losses would etch a top four position for the Cavs into stone.
