If the Cavs are consistent at one thing it’s being inconsistent. After finally starting a game strong, and being up by as much 16 in the first half, they fell flat. The Cavs went down by 12 in the 4th quarter and they dug themselves too deep of a hole to get out of.
To see how the Cavs started the game versus how they ended the game is night and day. They held the Blazers to 40 first half points, and were attentive on the defensive end out the gate. They were forcing Blazer turnovers and capitalizing on those opportunities.
Darius Garland was getting into the paint early for easy looks to Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, and then.. it just kind of stopped. The Cavs had the paint advantage for most of the night but went away from it. On a night they struggled to find their range, this is something they should have came back more to then they did. Mobley and Allen finished 15-23.
This is now back-to-back games JB Bickerstaff went with matchup zone with Mobley in the middle. It’s a good little wrinkle to change offensive tempo throughout the game.
JBB has also seemingly settled into a 8-man rotation. Caris LeVert is the first one off the bench with Georges Niang and Isaac Okoro to follow-up. Allen and Mobley and Mitchell and Garland are paired off and alternated after the starters are off the court. The Mitchell-LeVert-Strus 3-man pairing has a +17.5 net rating on the year, one of their better trios and one that will be a staple of the rotation moving forward.
Credit to Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11 on X) for pointing it out but there’s been a noticeable effort the last few games, when JBB has had a full roster and gotten into his rotations, to utilize Mobley only and Allen only lineups. For the talk of their pairing together, there’s also a way to navigate lineups without one or the other and they’re attempting to do that right now.
The Cavs went on a run to start the 2Q and were up 40-24 at one point. The defense was stout, the offense was doing enough and this was going exactly as how you thought it would for a bottom feeder of an opponent.
Then, it just happened. The Cavs barely lead by 1 at halftime. From that Cavs run to start the 2Q all the way to the end of the 3Q, the Blazers outscored the Cavs by 15. The Cavs had 6 points in 7 minutes after that initial 2Q run.
The Cavs offense struggled to get any kind of rhythm for most of the night. They had only 3 made 3’s at halftime, and only had 1 free throw attempt. They ended the night with 7 made 3’s, 12 free-throw attempts (thanks to Mitchell) and 19 turnovers. 7 3’s is their lowest total of the year. They are now 3-4 when they make under 10 3’s a game.
Strus and Niang only combined for 2 3-pointers, their consecutive game streak of 2+ 3-pointers made ended, and Mitchell and Garland were 3-17 from deep on the night. Mitchell is really struggling with his outside shot, shooting 19.3% (6-31) in his last 4 games.
For a team that really held a lowly Blazers team in check, the 2H was a rough go of it. The Blazers finished with a 50/40/100 split, made 14 3’s and won a game committing 23 turnovers and getting outscored in the paint. Yeesh.
Speaking of defense, Mitchell’s defensive effort has waned in comparison to years past. He’s allowing a defensive FG% of 52.1% compared to 48.8% and 49.6% the two previous years. He showed up late in the 4Q for some good defensive possessions but the effort throughout the game is not where you’d like to see it for a supposed strong defensive team.
Teams have found a way to disrupt the Cavs offensive rhythm this year by picking up the lead guard at times full court. It worked tonight with a Garland turnover in the backcourt, and the Cavs burning time to get past halfcourt.
Speaking of turnovers, Garland finished the night with 8 of them. He had managed to cut down on them over his last 10 games (3.3) but tonight was a flashback to how he started the year out. This was now his 2nd 8 turnover game on the year. The Cavs finished with 19 on the game which has been a problem all year.
This game encapsulates the frustration with the Cavs on the year: They have moments of good play but consistently struggle to put together stretches of good play. Encapsulating it, part 2: Coming off two good wins, to leading by 16 at one point to being down by 12 at another point and losing to a bottom-10 team at home with a full rotation is rough.
If there was any good credit Bickerstaff had earned with this team’s recent winning record, a lot of it got used up tonight with this result. Just a brutal way to wrap up the 5-game homestand.
Up next: Cavs travel to Detroit for a 7PM (ET) Saturday game
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