Game #75 | Clippers @ Cavs | March 30, 2025 | 3:30 p.m.

Individual stats:

Starters:
Strus 3-3-6 in 24 minutes
Mobley 22-7-4 with 3 blocks in 37 minutes. 3-6 from 3 That's got to shake up the defense.
Allen 25-12-3 with 2 steals in 31 minutes. 11-12 fg. That kills them. Mobley + Allen got 28 shots! They made 19 of them. Do that EVERY GAME!!!
Mitchell 24-12-7 with 4 steals In 37 minutes. Woah! Mitchell's playing SF. Impressive.
Garland 19-4-7

Bench: They won this game. 34-7-6
Merrill 6-4-2 with a steal in 22 minutes
Hunter 10-1-3 with a steal in 21 minutes
Wade 5-2-1 with a steal in 20 minutes
Okoro 11-0-0 in 11 minutes. 4-5 fg, 3-4 from 3! Point a minute, baby!
Green 2-0-0 with 2 steals in 5 minutes
 
Probably the most intensity we have played in a long time. Yes, the outcome won’t show a blowout, but is good that they know they have to pick it up…… I’m sure it was said in the thread . I haven’t read one second of the thread., but between Merrill and Hunter they gotta be careful on those three point close out, it seem like Hunter gets 1 a game lately and Merrill is very close and doing the same
 
33 assists on 47 buckets, good to see.

The Cavaliers got Mobley 16 shots and Allen 12. They made 8 and 11, respectively. DG and DM each had 7 assists.

Don also had 12 rebounds (one less than Zubac!) and 4 steals with only 2 turnovers. Fantastic game from him. That’s what we’ll need in the playoffs - a fine all around game.

Encouraging to see Ice shoot well. He was 49% before a pretty bad shoulder injury.
 
2 For The Brew said:
33 assists on 47 buckets, good to see.

The Cavaliers got Mobley 16 shots and Allen 12. They made 8 and 11, respectively. DG and DM each had 7 assists.

Don also had 12 rebounds (one less than Zubac!) and 4 steals with only 2 turnovers. Fantastic game from him. That’s what we’ll need in the playoffs - a fine all around game.

Encouraging to see Ice shoot well. He was 49% before a pretty bad shoulder injury.
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When the Cavaliers move the ball their offense is so much more efficient. Mitchell can score 1 on 1 but the times when he’s selective with those efforts are so much better for us.

Then he and DG can drive and kick to either our bigs or to some open shooters. It just seems like the less hero ball we see the better we are. But Mitchell still has the agility to get that tough bucket when needed.

If Garland can get that floater back and maybe improve on his mid range/drive game that would be optimal given how well he can take guys off the dribble.

Any way you slice it, this games version of the Cavaliers offense wasn’t perfect but it was much better than what we’ve seen recently.
 
bushwick_bill said:


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Really curious to see JA's energy level, focus, and physicality in the playoffs.

The way his mind works, I never expect him to see the regular season the way a coach like Thibs does or the way that some of the ultra-competitive perfectionist type players do. He's just a different cat.

But he cares about his teammates, he has personal pride, and I think, without changing his character/essence entirely, his mental approach to the playoffs is different/will be different then the regular season.

A good sign is the way he seemed to have taken that Zubac performance 12 days ago in LA to heart.
Another good sign is that in the two most recent game were we had an actual day off in between games, his energy level, compete level, and offensive touch were fantastic. Yes the game Friday wasn't as good, but it was a back to back, and those are done with and those aren't a thing in the playoffs.

Team wise, I would LOVE the Cavs to have clinched the 1st seed by or with the Pacers game on the 10th so that most of the starters can rest or barely play that final B2B game of the season on Friday the 11th against the Knicks.

Winning 4 of the next 5 will do that, no matter what the Celtics do(as their highest win total even winning out is 63 wins)
 
Huge, huge win as the Cavs take advantage of Kawhi Leonard being out for injury maintenance to pull out a 5-point win. With Leonard on the floor the Cavs aren't beating this team. I'm not sure anybody is.

Tremendous offensive performance with 127 points against the 4th best scoring defense in the NBA, and that was despite missing 30 threes, most of which were wide open. The only negative takeaway I have is the frustrating 3-point shooting.

Kudos to Allen and Mobley for coming back after being punked by Zubac in LA. He only had three offensive boards and was held to 14 points and 13 rebounds. Mobley's 3 threes were critical and Okoro was 3-for-4 from deep. When Mobley and Okoro are making 3's the Cavs are really tough to beat.

Mitchell was amazing with a line of 24/12/4 and a +15. He clearly understood that our bigs would need help on the glass. Donovan is a great rebounder when he wants to be and those 12 boards today were much needed. He was only 2-for-9 on 3's and I was frustrated with him taking them because he was so effective taking it to the rim.

The Cavs' guards are making a point of helping on the glass as Garland and Merrill each had four rebounds.

That was an amazing shooting exhibition by Norman Powell. I knew that after he only scored 11 in the first game that he would come out firing today with Kawhi out.

Harden was a -17. The next worst was Amir Coffey with -8 in 4 minutes. The Clippers' weakness is their bench as they got just 6 points in 40 minutes from Batum, Coffey, and Simmons. Boggy had 16, however. They may have to go with a seven-man rotation in the playoffs.
 
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