Game Night Observations: Keeping the foot on the gas, Donovan Mitchell's dunk, and Jarrett Allen's return
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @RealDCunningham.
NEW YORK – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Brooklyn Nets 115-109 on Tuesday night at Barclays Center.
The final score wasn’t entirely indicative of the way the Cavs played against the Nets, but it certainly didn’t quell any concerns about how this team closes out games. It was a night when the Cavs were in complete control from the start of the second quarter on, but couldn’t keep their foot on the gas quite as long as they needed to.
Simply put, there was never a doubt that the Cavs were going to lose this game, even though the Nets climbed within five points in the final minute. But after they led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter, the score being as close as it became isn’t something that should entirely be overlooked, especially when it’s considered that the last made field goal of the game for the Cavs was a Ricky Rubio floater to give the Cavs a 108-86 lead with 7:17 left in regulation.
The Cavs had built a big enough cushion to withstand the Nets closing the game on a 23-7 run, but finishing games the right way is something that’s going to matter when they’re not able to control the bulk of the action throughout the night, the way they were on Tuesday.
“I think tonight, as good as it was to win, I don't think we're all too proud of the way we finished. We're better than that. Whether it's turnovers, free throws, the biggest thing was the defensive boards,” All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell said after the game. “We've gotta close to win games. That's what we've got coming up in the playoffs. We've gotta find ways to, I'm not gonna say close games, we've just gotta find ways to keep our foot on the gas. That's really it. I don't think tonight was our best effort at that.”
On Tuesday night, the Cavs didn’t start particularly well, and obviously didn’t end as they would have liked, but the reason they still came away with the win was a dominating performance in the middle portions of the game.
After trailing by seven following the first quarter, the Cavs outscored Brooklyn 71-48 in the second and third quarters. It was essentially a 24-minute period of play where the Cavs were able to do whatever they wanted on both ends of the floor. Defensively, they were as good as they’ve looked lately, completely smothering the Nets by forcing turnovers and limiting second chance opportunities. On offense, Evan Mobley got rolling with 13 points in the second quarter and Cedi Osman buried three 3-pointers, while Mitchell and Darius Garland each had nine points in the third quarter.
The Cavs even started the fourth quarter off well, pushing a 16-point lead even further out, but then the proverbial foot slipped off the gas and things didn’t go as well as they needed to down the stretch, particularly after Mitchell’s thunderous posterization of Brooklyn forward Yuta Watanabe.
“We need to play a complete game. And we allowed the lead to dictate our emotions. We allowed a big play to dictate our emotions instead of doing the job and finishing the game the way we need to finish the game,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
Donovan’s dunk
Mitchell finished the night with a game-high 31 points, but two of those points stood out far above the other 29. The play of the night on Tuesday was unquestionably when Mitchell took flight in the fourth quarter and hammered a dunk home over Watanabe’s outstretched arms. It was a play that will almost certainly be featured on any highlight reel of Mitchell when his career is finished so many years from now.
The play started when Watanabe threw an errant pass intended for Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges that was picked off by Caris LeVert. LeVert raced up the floor, taking two dribbles before lobbing a pass ahead to Mitchell. Mitchell corralled the pass with his right hand, pounded it into the floor once before rising up off two feet and unleashing a slam that certainly qualifies as an NBA Dunk of the Year candidate.
It was a play so good, that it needed a second look. At one point, Mitchell backed up to give himself a better view of the video board at Barclays Center, except no replay was shown in the arena with the Cavs being the visiting team.
“I was trying to see it, but I forgot we're on the road. They're definitely not gonna show it. First time I saw it was when we went back in the locker room,” Mitchell said. “It was not bad.”
It appeared that shortly after the dunk, which naturally threw the Cavs bench into a frenzy, as if members of the Cavs that were sitting on the sidelines were able to catch a replay on a monitor that an assistant coach has and is typically used to call back plays in situations that may call for a coach’s challenge.
“I was just like, 'oh, OK.' And everybody's reaction, in the timeout was like that's your best one. I saw it. It's up there, I don't know if it's my best one, but it's definitely up there,” Mitchell said.
“I give it a 9.7 out of 10,” Cavs center Jarrett Allen said. “I don’t know. But I’m not a guy that can say it’s perfect.”
Jarrett Allen's return
Tuesday night was an occasion for the Cavs because it was the first time in nearly two weeks when they had their full allotment of rotation players.
Allen had missed the past four games with what has been deemed a right eye contusion that was sustained in the team’s second game in Miami against the Heat. He returned to the floor on Tuesday night with 12 points and 14 rebounds in just over 35 minutes of action.
Not bad for a return.
The last 10 days for Allen featured appointments with doctors and problems with his vision. After the game he said that he didn’t start working out again until right before the team’s game against Washington last Friday night.
“Annoying. That would be the perfect word for it,” Allen described the injury. “It was hurting to blink. I knew I wasn’t mentally ready to play with just how it was healing. When it came time, I woke up one morning and was like, ‘It’s time.’”
Allen did take the floor without any kind of protective eyewear. It was something that he said he did try out, but ultimately wasn’t for him.
Playoff race update
The win on Tuesday night paired with the loss by the New York Knicks on Monday gives the Cavaliers a 3.5-game lead for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference with eight games remaining on the schedule for the Cleveland and nine games left for New York.
The magic number for the Cavs to clinch home court in the first round of the playoffs is now down to six, while the magic number for them to clinch a spot in the top six, and thus, a playoff berth, is down to three.
On Wednesday, one of those numbers will move closer to zero with the fifth-place Knicks and seventh-place Heat set to square off with each other in Miami. A win by the Heat would bring the magic number for home court advantage down to five, while a Knicks win would give the Cavs a magic number of two for a playoff berth.
It is entirely possible that the Cavs have a playoff berth clinched before their game against the Houston Rockets on Sunday night in Cleveland.
A Cavs win on Thursday over the Nets would give them their 47th win of the season and would clinch the tiebreaker over the Nets while also handing Brooklyn its 34th loss of the year. In that scenario, the magic number for the Cavs would be one to finish above Brooklyn.
Should the Knicks beat the Heat on Wednesday night, it would be their 35th loss of the season, but because Miami is likely going to be the Southeast Division champion, they will hold the tiebreaker over the Cavs. This means if the Cavs have 47 wins and the Heat have 35 losses, the magic number to finish ahead of the Heat would be down to one, just like with Brooklyn.
The Nets and Heat play on Saturday night, meaning one of those teams will lose, thus clinching a playoff spot for the Cavs.
Obviously, this is all just a formality at this point, but it’s a moment that should be celebrated in some capacity, nonetheless.
