Pierre Pan
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Is Cavs’ J.B. Bickerstaff losing playoff chess match again? What moves can he make? — cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Adjustments or execution? Players or coaches? Xs and Os or Jimmy’s (Donovan’s) and Joe’s (Evan’s)?
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Adjustments or execution? Players or coaches? Xs and Os or Jimmy’s (Donovan’s) and Joe’s (Evan’s)?
In the aftermath of back-to-back collapses in Orlando — games where experienced Cleveland showed a concerning level of collective immaturity and a lack of composure — an abundance of criticism was directed toward Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff. That’s nothing new. It comes with the territory. Everything gets scrutinized in the playoffs. Lineups. Rotations. Schemes. Speeches. Timeout usage. Body language. Someone must be held accountable for Saturday’s ugly 10-point third quarter and 29-point second half, right?
A coach is always the easiest target, especially one whose job security has been questioned since last April’s flameout — a non-competitive series in which Bickerstaff was out-maneuvered by Knicks chess master Tom Thibodeau. The turbulent regular season didn’t help, and this suddenly bumpy playoff run has only added to a long list of growing concerns.
Then there was the Game 4 loss — and some locker room comments afterward.
“They made their adjustment,” veteran Georges Niang said Saturday afternoon. “They put Wendell Carter in the starting lineup. That was a rotational change for them. Usually in that sense a team goes back home, looks at the film and I’m sure there are a couple things we will look to make an adjustment for. I don’t think rotational wise but more or less schematically when it comes to things that we can be better at on the offensive end and go from there.”
The burlier 260-pound Carter moving into Orlando’s starting group for slender defensive ace Jonathan Isaac, who is listed as 230 pounds, took away the Cavs’ physical advantage on the interior. Since Magic coach Jamahl Mosley’s lineup tweak, that new quintet — Jalen Suggs, Gary Harris, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Carter — has an offensive rating of 117.1, a defensive rating of 95.4 and a dominant 21.8 net rating. It has outscored the Cavs by 20 points in 52 minutes.
Cavs third-year forward Evan Mobley said the addition of Carter has not only led to more size, but there’s been an uptick in 3s from Orlando, which is attacking the paint and looking for spray-outs. A floor-spacing 5, Carter shot 37.4% from beyond the arc during the regular season, keeping the Cavs from utilizing “drop” or “go-under” defensive coverages. The court is more open for attack-minded Wagner and Banchero.
“Got to make our adjustments,” Mobley said following Monday’s practice. “Not significant. But definitely some changes, some tweaks here and there that we went over today, and I feel like those adjustments are definitely going to play as well. We’ve got different options on different things that are based on how they’re playing defense on us. We’re going to try to execute those.”
Adjustments. Execution. Two buzzwords since the Game 4 laugher. So, which one is it?
“I think execution is part of the adjustments,” star guard Donovan Mitchell said. “How you execute in different situations, what they’re taking away, what they’re giving to us, what we’re giving them, what we’re taking away. I think as whole, I think we’ve had a good two days of kind of figuring things out where we want to go from here.”
That’s one viewpoint.
“I’ve made my comments about the adjustments,” Bickerstaff said. “The game comes down to execution and who plays better basketball. There’s 10 million ways to skin a cat, but if you execute your way better, you’re probably going to give yourself a chance to win. So that’s what our focus is. Learn from what happened before, improve on it, but just be the better executing team.”
The odds of a starting lineup change — similar to the one Orlando made — are incredibly low. Who would even be swapped out? Who is playing well enough off the bench to justify a bigger role? But there are some rotational and stylistic tweaks Bickerstaff can make.
With an emphasis on rediscovering their 3-point heavy offensive identity, turning to sharpshooting reserve Sam Merrill, in some capacity, would seem like an obvious one. Only it’s not that simple. Lineup decisions are delicate. There’s always a trickle-down effect. Risk vs. reward. Merrill’s minutes would need to come at the expense of someone in the every-night guard rotation.
Darius Garland? Isaac Okoro? Caris LeVert? Max Strus?
Nonetheless, Merrill brings a different offensive dynamic. Movement. Gravity. Cutting. Spacing. There’s a level of attention he requires from the opposing defense. He can create chaos on every possession. Pairing him with Mitchell and Strus — a trio that outscored teams by 19.6 points per 100 possessions in 82 minutes this season — would seemingly take some of the defensive attention away from Mitchell, who continues to manage an achy left knee. It may also help revive Strus.
Bickerstaff and his assistants should also be weighing the pros and cons of benching Niang, the floor-stretching backup power forward who is currently mired in a shooting slump. One of Cleveland’s offseason pickups, brought in to provide postseason experience, second unit stability and perimeter shooting, is averaging a wretched 3.5 points on 22.7% from the field and 9.1% from 3-point range while also being hunted on defense.
Niang is 1 of 11 on triple attempts despite 10 of them being classified as “open” or “wide open” by NBA.com’s data tracking. As a reference point, Niang shot 39.5% on such looks during the regular season.
“Call a spade a spade,” Niang said Saturday when asked about the bench woes, with Cleveland’s reserves being outscored by 44 points thus far. “Either we’re not shooting the ball well or we’re not in the right position. We kind of have to figure that out as a collective group.”
There have been calls for Merrill to take Niang’s minutes. One problem: those two aren’t positionally correlated. Niang is the backup 4. Someone needs to occupy that spot when Mobley is out of the game. If not Niang, then who?
Dean Wade isn’t available in this series — and his status for Round Two, if the Cavs advance, remains unclear, sources tell cleveland.com. Unless Bickerstaff turns to little-used 34-year-old Marcus Morris Sr., the Niang swap would likely require Cleveland to go small, possibly putting 6-foot-5 Okoro at the 4. It’s a risky option given the size across Orlando’s lineup and the Cavs’ recent rebounding issues. Plus, Okoro has been a non-factor on the offensive end, with back-to-back 0-fers on the road.
Is that small-ball look, or another one with either LeVert or Strus at the backup forward spot, a better option than having Niang on the floor? Is Morris? What if those changes were to backfire? What if they made the team worse? There’s always that not-discussed-enough possibility.
It’s Bickerstaff’s responsibility to push the right buttons. He must put his players in the best position to succeed. He’s made mistakes. He has flaws, some of which have been exposed in this series.
The primary goal is to find a way to make scoring a little bit easier. In nine Bickerstaff-led playoff games, the Cavs have reached the 100-point mark just once. They are currently 15th in points, shooting percentage and overall rating in the postseason. Following Monday’s slate, no team is taking fewer 3-point attempts per game — a drastic, unacceptable reversal given the personnel and regular-season style that led to 48 wins.
Even with a defensive design that’s led to another top 5 ranking, Bickerstaff deserves criticism for the continued April offensive woes and second-half breakdowns.
“They’re obviously a really good defensive team, so us being able to sustain offensively and what we’re looking to get, I think that has been the biggest challenge,” Bickerstaff said. “We need to take ‘em. We’ve always talked about this. It’s creating the good shots and it was important how we created those 3s. I think what you’re seeing here is there’s a lot of Orlando staying home on 3-point shooters and interior opportunities are happening. But we need to continue to take care of those interior opportunities and then force them into some adjustments where they’re coming into the paint. Now we can make those kick-outs for 3-point shots. Our drive-and-kick stuff — going back, watching film, seeing how they’ve been defending us and preparing ourselves — we’ve seen some opportunities where there are things out there that we’ve missed and we’ve just got to take advantage of the things that are there.”
Making shots would help. Guys playing to their standard would as well.
Garland is averaging a pedestrian 12.0 points to go with 6.0 assists against 3.0 turnovers. Strus is shooting just 38.5% from the field and 17.6% from 3-point range. Niang has yet to tally more than seven points in any of the four games. LeVert, the second unit anchor and Sixth Man of the Year candidate, hasn’t looked the part, averaging 8.3 points in 25.0 minutes.
Mitchell has been outscored by Wagner and Banchero. In Games 3 and 4, he averaged just 15.5 points on 11 of 30 (36.6%) shooting and 2 of 10 (20%) from beyond the arc while committing eight turnovers against 13 assists — ugly numbers that aren’t helping his postseason reputation.
“It starts with me,” Mitchell reiterated Monday. “I just can’t take four shots in that half. Fourteen shots and 16 shots in consecutive games — right, wrong or indifferent — speaks to a level of aggression. I wasn’t that. I hold myself accountable for that. I’ll be better.”
In the two lopsided road games, the Cavs took 51 total 3-pointers. While the volume needs to increase, 43 of those attempts were classified as open or wide open. Despite that level of shot quality, the Cavs hit just 10 of 43 (23.2%).
Strus attempted 12, making just two. Mitchell got nine, also hitting a pair. That means nearly half of those shots — no defender within four feet at the time of the release — came from two guys the Cavs want to take them.
In all, 97 of Cleveland’s triple tries fall into that open or wide-open bucket through the first four games. The team has made 26. That’s a 26.8% mark. Does that speak to an offensive scheme that isn’t working? That isn’t diverse enough or creative enough to consistently generate good looks? Or does it speak to players not taking advantage?
Is Bickerstaff being outsmarted or is the team being outplayed? Would a better-coached team be in a different position?
The early-series game plans, rotational usage, play calls, sets and tactics were good enough to help Cleveland go up 2-0, including back-to-back wire-to-wire victories.
But it’s a game of playoff chess. Mosley made his move. It was impactful. It helped Orlando even this best-of-seven at two games apiece.
A simple starting lineup maneuver shouldn’t be checkmate. Time for Bickerstaff’s counter.
