This team simply does not value 3pt field goals enough. On either side of the ball.
From day one, the common denominator of our offensive and defensive "identities" has been the proximity of the rim. It's easy to see why – Mobley and Allen were swatting shots right out the gate, and on offense, the Garland/Allen PnR dunks were our bread and butter. On a superficial level, everything revolved around getting to the rim or preventing people from scoring there. For a while, it seemed to be enough.
Unfortunately, as much as the Cavs probably liked to think they had succcesfully turned back the clock, you can't beat the math. Three points is more than two. In the 2nd half of the season, we've kept bringing a knife to a gunfight. When teams move the ball and score on open 3pt looks... we respond with post-ups or pick and rolls. That does not work in the long run.
Before you say "But we don't have the shooters!", that is not true. What IS true is that we have too many non-shooters, but we do have enough guys who can make shots to run an intelligent offense aimed at creating easier scoring opportunities from the perimeter. Everyone in the NBA has slumps, and everyone misses open shots now and then, but the difference is that we make no consistent effort to create those shots.
On defense, we keep helping off shooters (on many teams, this pretty much means anyone standing on the perimeter), which is just insane in this age of the NBA. I understand fans hate to see guys getting layups – particularly as we used to have an identity as a team that swats your shit – but they should be absolutely enraged to see us giving up 3's. When teams quickly move the ball, we defend like we're expecting them to drive to the basket at any moment. In reality, they're usually searching for the open outside shooter.
Fixing this is not easy. With the way the offense has been turned over to Garland, running actions for 3pt looks or moving the ball around does not come naturally. Darius is a ball dominant guy who wants to be the one who makes the most important decision of the possession, be it a shot or an assist. There's just not enough trust there. If JBB does not install any kind of a system or even a principle, it's not going to get fixed on its own.
On defense, when you guard teams that move the ball along the perimeter to find shooters, you need to keep in mind what you're trying to prevent, and you also can't have any real weak links. Everyone must be able and willing to close out. A huge problem is that while Love is the best shooter of the team, he's by far the worst perimeter defender. That's just an unfortunate combination for a team like this. It's not always Kevin's guy who takes/makes the shot, but Love is often the one who starts the domino effect when he can't move.
I have an issue here. It is that the guys are so young, they still aren't just launching 3s like other teams do. Too often dribbling in to take a 2 when they need a 3. Caris did it 3 times in crunch time and he missed his turnaround to cut it to 1.
Love does and Lauri does. Garland has in games where he is very successful and he passed a few up last night. Windler drove at one point and turned it over. JB said "Shoot the damn ball".
Okoro took his 3s last night and made all but the last one, which could have been the difference. They missed several wide open shots last night in crunch time and before.
Point is that the coaching staff is not de-prioritizing 3s. Some of the younger guys and Caris are passing them up to drive into a crowded paint and that is not good.
As far as defending the 3pt line. Guys are in their deep season 3pt shooting which means everyone is tuned up and ready to shoot. Cavs were getting away with help in the post earlier in the season because they were recovering faster when they were fresher. Now they are more tired and I have seen especially Mobley and Okoro are not getting back to 3 as fast. Garland needs to be stunting instead of actually helping because he can't recover fast enough.
Also, Mobley need more help than Allen does at Center, so it is a confluence of factors, but the solutions in my opinion are these guys need to get older, stronger and better conditioned. They also need to help less and knowing the personnel. That changes as you get more reps in the league. Last year Okoro was biting on all the vet tricks, but now he has a much better understanding of guys skillsets and you just don't see it anymore. Evan is getting that experience right now.
For me, the injuries have taken their toll. Guys probably played too hard in the beginning of the season and may not have paced themselves properly, and teams are simply turning it on, and the things that were working in the beginning of the season aren't.
These are the pitfalls of a young team, including turnovers, that they were able to avoid most of the year, but are now rearing their head while the team is dealing with injuries.
This game was lost in the first 8 min I guess. They outplayed the 6ers the rest of the way as Wham said. Cavs played a really good game and they missed some shots and Embiid and Harden scored ljust like last game. I guess people are really surprised one of the leading MVP candidates and a multiple MVP guy beat Darius and the ROY. It's absurd the expectations on this team at this point. I don't like the losing either, but they played a fantastic game last night, JB coached them very well and found a lot of things that worked, but they were unable to overcome the slow start when the sixers came out like it was a playoff game.
AND Maxey was amazing and I think he really showed the value of a speedy guy who can hit shots like Sexton and how he can fit in on a good team as a release valve. Every fucking shot he hit was basically a desperation "please do something" when Embiid and Harden were stymied. Yeah he was unguarded, but he nailed every single "have to have it" bucket
