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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 116-114 in one of the more improbable victories of the season thanks to Isaac Okoro’s game-winning 3-pointer from the left corner with seven tenths of a second remaining in regulation.
Wow.
The Cavs have won a number of games this season in improbable fashion. Wins over Chicago and Boston certainly come to mind. This victory over Brooklyn joins that list. The Cavs trailed by eight points with 1:53 left in regulation, only to finish the contest on a 12-2 run over the final 113 seconds capped off by Okoro’s make from the left corner.
That basket by Okoro was the result of a missed free throw by Donovan Mitchell – that would have tied the game – two missed put back attempts by Mitchell, the ball finding Caris LeVert on the right wing, and a confident shot by Okoro.
“I mean, at first I saw Don miss those layups and I’m just standing, I’m shocked, first off, and then the ball goes out to Caris. I’m just running to the corner, going to my spot, Vert trusted me, threw me the ball, and once it left my hand I knew it was going in,” Okoro said after his first career game-winning basket.
That shot sent the Cavs into a frenzy as the Nets called for a timeout and quieted Barclays Center. That shot was also the result of countless hours of work Okoro puts into that exact situation.
“He works on those shots. Like I’ve been saying to ya’ll since I got here. He’s in the gym more than anybody on the team working on that same exact shot,” Mitchell said after the game. “To see him, not only improve his 3-point shooting as the year goes, but to see him have a moment like this where he leads us to victory in that moment, that’s all the hard work paying off. I think that’s what makes it special.”
Okoro hasn’t always been a reliable shooter from beyond the arc. Even after Thursday, teams are likely going to continue to sag off of him defensively and focus attention on the other four guys on the floor, especially when the playoffs arrive, and the pressure ramps up. But having this type of moment is something that’s only going to boost Okoro’s confidence and the confidence that his teammates have in him. When the playoffs arrive in just over two weeks, Okoro will be able to have this moment in the back of his mind, and his teammates will too.
“As a young player, that’s everything,” LeVert said of Okoro’s shot. “To hit a big time shot on the road, against a team that needs to win, it’s a big time shot, big time last five minutes for us as well.”
The Cavs might never be in a situation again where they need Okoro to make a game-winning 3-pointer. But it’s also entirely possible this scenario happens again in late April. Only time will tell. If it does happen, it’s a moment that Okoro and the team will both be ready for.
“It always feels good to hit a game winner, even though that’s my first one,” Okoro said. “One for one. It feels good of course.”
Vantage points
When this type of moment happens, it’s always interesting to hear how the deciding moment looked to different members of the team who were on the floor. Okoro’s shot may have looked different through the eyes of LeVert, who picked up the assist on the play, than it did to Mitchell or Evan Mobley.
“Missed the free throw,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of his view from the sidelines. “We had multiple opportunities at it, but guys didn't quit on the play. And we talked about winning 50-50 balls, winning the scrap and the ball was loose, and I thought Caris again did a great job of coming up with it, attacking a broken floor and hitting the wide-open guy and Isaac knocked it down.”
On the court, the viewpoints were a bit different, starting with Mitchell, who started the play by missing a free throw and two put back attempts.
“Isaac bailed us out, bailed me out, that’s for damn sure. I missed the free throw,” Mitchell said. “Tried to put the first one back in, second one I just rushed it because I saw, I don’t know who it was, Nic Claxton I think, coming from my right side, so I tried to put it up there quickly. I missed. Jarrett Allen saved the day, got the tip on the rebound, passed it to Caris. Isaac ran to the corner, Jarrett Allen set an amazing flare and [Okoro] knocked it down.
After Mitchell’s missed put back, the ball eventually found LeVert, thanks in large part to the help from Allen. Once things settled down, he had one more goal.
“I was gonna get [Okoro] open,” Allen said. “I saw that Nic Claxton was going to go contest it, so I tried to set the flare screen to give Isaac a little more space. And once he let it go, I knew it was going in. It was one of those that Isaac's been working on all year.”
Before Okoro could make the shot, LeVert had to find him in the corner.
“Don missed the free throw, I was standing behind him, so I knew it was short. But we’ve seen him do that before. I thought he was gonna tip it in. When he missed the second one, I honestly didn’t know how much time was left. I was like damn, it’s over, and then the ball magically found me,” LeVert said. “I’m like, ‘OK, I’m about to shoot this.’ Royce [O’Neale] was on me, Spencer [Dinwiddie] was on my hip and Royce was kinda in no man’s land in front of me, so I’m like somebody’s open, so I just looked to the opposite corner and [Okoro] knocked it down.
The other player on the floor for the Cavs was Mobley, and when he saw Okoro shoot it, he had a good feeling too.
“I was just ready to rebound the ball if it came off when Donovan shot the free throw, came back to him, he missed the layups, and then it was just trying to get the ball,” Mobley said. “It got batted out to Caris, he was double teamed and then he found Isaac in the corner. When he shot it, I was going to go rebound again. When I saw it in the air, it looked good to me, then it went in.”
Mobley’s dominant night
So much of the attention on Thursday night goes to Okoro’s shot, and it should. But Mobley was fantastic once again against the Nets. He finished the night with 26 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks, three assists, a steal, and no turnovers in 40 minutes of play.
On a night when Mitchell finished with 31 points, Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges had a game-high 32, and Spencer Dinwiddie had 25 points and 12 assists, Mobley was the best player on the floor.
“He was dominant. He was just so dominant, man,” Mitchell said of Mobley. “I think he had 25 or something like that tonight, 16 rebounds. That’s a dominant performance. Especially when JA gets in foul trouble, he’s holding it down for us. He’s guarding the perimeter, getting on the boards and doing it all for us.”
This type of performance is no longer an eye-popping one from Mobley. It’s not that it’s less impressive, it’s that it’s happening so frequently that no one is surprised when it does happen.
“Very special,” center Jarrett Allen said of Mobley. “I don't know his final stats, but he had a 20-15 type of game. He did excellent. He had, what, four block shots. He was all around the court. He did everything we needed him to do.”
That’s what Mobley consistently does: everything the Cavaliers need him to do.
On Thursday night it was carry a bit more off the offensive load. Most nights, Mobley makes his living catching the ball deep for easy dunks and finding ways to get to his hook shot that he’s gotten down so well. Against the Nets, Mobley did it all. He created offense for himself, went to work in the post, caught lobs, finished off misses by teammates. He did everything.
Updating the magic number
The win by the Cavs on Thursday means they’re right on the doorstep of clinching a berth in the playoffs. Brooklyn now sits in seventh place with 34 losses while the Cavaliers are in fourth with 47 wins. Thursday night’s result also clinched the season series for the Cavs two games to one, giving them the tiebreaker over Brooklyn. All of that knocks the magic number to reach the playoffs down to one.
The earliest the Cavs can clinch a spot in the playoffs is Saturday when the Nets are in Miami to take on the Heat. If Brooklyn loses that game, the Cavaliers will officially punch their ticket. If the Nets win, the Cavs will have a chance to clinch with a win over the Houston Rockets Sunday in Cleveland.
Clinching a spot in the playoffs has been a formality for quite a while for the Cavs. It would have taken a catastrophic meltdown over the last month of the season for the team to find itself in the play-in tournament. Now, the race worth watching is the battle for home court advantage in the first round.
That race can be put to rest soon, too.
For that to happen, the Cavaliers would have to clinch a better record than the New York Knicks. Cleveland beating the Nets on Thursday paired with the Knicks losing to the Orlando Magic shaves the magic number to finish in the top four of the Eastern Conference down to three.
The earliest that could be clinched is Tuesday night. For that to happen, it would require the Cavs to beat Houston on Sunday, the Knicks to lose to Houston on Monday, and the Cavs to win in Atlanta on Tuesday night.
At this point, the biggest question left as far as the playoffs are concerned is who the opponent will be when the first round begins at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.