The Athletic is out with their weekly power rankings. This week they're highlighting team and individual clutch performance, ranking each team by performance in late and close games and picking one player who has excelled and underperformed in those situations. The Cavs remain 6th overall and 4th in the East behind Milwaukee, Philly, and Boston who rank 1, 2, and 3. It looks like whoever wins the East should win the whole thing.
6. Cleveland Cavaliers (previously sixth) | 45-28 | +5.8 net rating
Weekly slate: Win at Hornets, Loss to Sixers, Win over Wizards
Team clutch: (20-20) | -0.2 net rating (ranked 15th)
This is a bit disappointing from the Cavs this season. They should be better than a coin flip when it comes to the clutch, and that’s exactly what they’ve been. Their net rating is almost a 0.0 and their record is an even 20-20. They’re a good clutch defense and a bad clutch offense. That shouldn’t happen with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland as your backcourt. You should operate at a higher level.
Mr. Reliable: Evan Mobley | 64.5 FG | 40.0 3FG | 47.1 FT | 13.5 points per 36 | 7.8 rebounds per 36 | 1.1 assists per 36 | 0.8 turnovers per 36
It’s hard to say their big man safety valve is the reliable one, but it’s kind of shaken out that way. Mobley is really good at scoring when the defense converges. He doesn’t panic. He doesn’t rush stuff. Now, he might start doing that if his free throw shooting in the clutch remains in the DeAndre Jordan zone, but Mobley has been very reliable as a dump-off/secondary option.
Mr. Unreliable: Donovan Mitchell | 39.8 FG | 29.7 3FG | 87.5 FT | 29.6 points per 36 | 5.8 rebounds per 36 | 3.3 assists per 36 | 2.3 turnovers per 36
We’ve seen this Mitchell in the clutch before and it’s not going to be good enough. The Cavs need him to be the guy who forces the action toward the hoop, rather than settling for contested long-range jumpers. He scores a lot because he takes a ton of shots. But this feels a lot like the bad Mitchell we saw in the clutch toward the end of the Utah era. We know he can be better than this.
My comment:
I agree the Cavs have been bad offensively in the clutch (the numbers don't lie) and Mitchell and Garland bear a lot of the responsibility. Too often they try to win the game by themselves. Mitchell does tend to force up long, contested jumpers and Garland dribbles into heavy traffic and loses the ball. They get away from running the normal offense and play hero ball. JBB needs to have a talk with these guys and point out that what they've been doing isn't working.