Good game overall. Another amazing performance by both guards and Allen which was crucial to this win. Portland without Lillard though...not it.
This team is clearly at their best with spacing. Donovan can destroy any PnR coverage and we are doing him and the team a disservice when we are putting non shooters around him for the majority of the game.
Before the game I said that the lineup that I thought would be the most efficient would be a Garland,Mitchell,Cedi,Wade,Allen/Mobley. We didn't see it.. instead we saw a Mitchell/Garland,Cedi,Lamar/Okoro,Wade,Allen/Mobley which was still our best lineup.
The starting lineup isn't good in the sense that there is just way too much overhelping by the opposing team on everything that we do. Portland is a terrible PnR defending team... and with just proper spacing we could have buried them in the 2nd quarter. The lineup that JBB put out there let them back into the game. They can't keep up with anybody and playing with a Lamar/Mobley/Allen frontcourt made their life much easier than it should have been. Nevertheless, The Cavs talent trumps so much.
What I want to see is Wade inserted into the starting lineup asap pending health. I wanna see a lot of maximized shooting lineups with 1 rim protector with Wade in them. In regards to Wade, I thought that it looked like his knee was still bothering him...looked a tad slower laterally... so he should take it easy until he fully heals if that's the case.
So again...spacing and defense should be maximized with this group, but i'm leaning into the shooting because we need to dictate everything on the floor as this group can be unstoppable offensively if maximized. You also can't allow a team to have fucking Hart on Mobley and get away with it because our spacing is so trash. You see that, you automatically adjust and put more shooters on the floor. We need to start making it a bit easier on this group, and it's so easy to do so...even without an elite wing. It's no surprise that both Wade and Cedi had +17 for the game.
So far this season I believe the Cavs are better with 1 rim protector rather than 2. But we will have to see how they look with a good shooter at the 3 to determine if that's in fact true.
Oh, and another thing about the defensive scheme. I think the Cavs are closing to hard on players that they shouldn't be. I'm not sure JBB realizes that you want non shooters to shoot? especially when you have such a potent offense. I think closing hard on Winslow, Hart, Little is unnecessary even if you are successful with your rotations.. it's just too taxing and not worth it.
Donovan and Garland are pretty special though...overall.