Game notes:
- It was almost comical to watch Dallas try to hide Porzingis on pick and roll defense... while the Cavs were trying to involve him in every single PnR. LOL. I thought JBB did a great job here. The Mavs had a miserable time trying to contain the Garland/Allen combination with their weak drop coverage. Garland pretty much had a buffet table in front on him the second he cleared the perimeter screen.
- Dallas looks like a hopeless team. No chemistry AT ALL. Doncic is frustrated, doesn't believe in his teammates and they clearly don't like to play with him. So far Kidd has been an awful choice for this team. Not surprised. Their record is a lie. Dallas is headed for a cliff and it will get ugly.
- Garland makes me scratch my head. You can see the mountain of natural talent, and of course he's absolutely essential for this team - he's one of the few guys who are able to put pressure on the defense. However, he's just way too loose with the basketball for my liking. For a starting PG, he leaves his feet too much, forces passes and tends to paint himself in a corner. I get that he's still learning to play the position at the highest level, but with Rubio lately falling off a cliff offensively, there's a lot of pressure on Darius to be a dependable "floor general" for this team. Some of his turnovers are demoralizing, and we can't have those.
- Jarrett Allen should be an All Star. He's been incredibly efficient and has been able to expand his game as well. In my book he's easily a top 3 roll man in this league.
- You can see the league is now paying attention to Mobley. This was totally expected. Nothing comes free to him anymore, and he needs to figure out how to stay optimistic and aggressive despite it. Luckily he seems to be the type of guy who never gets too high or too low. I'd still like to see him at the high post more - he's been pretty ineffective on the perimeter. Trouble is, with Allen being red hot and needing space to operate in the middle, Mobley is getting caught in no-man's land all the time. This is a problem JBB is going to need to solve.
- Rubio either needs to start making his layups (and, to a slightly lesser extent, shots) or stop throwing crap at the basket altogether. This kind of thing won't fly. It's pretty astonishing that we easily beat Dallas even though we regularly had THREE non-shooters out there at the same time. Currently, any lineup with Ricky, Okoro and Allen/Mobley puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the dudes who actually CAN shoot. Lauri's hot streak couldn't have come at a better time. The Cavs have needed every one of his points lately.