- Darius Garland started it, but Donovan Mitchell finished it.
- Game one was Evan Mobley’s offensive ascension. Game two was a focus on the role players in Dean Wade and Ty Jerome. Game three was the Cavs best players playing like their best players.
- Mitchell and Garland combined for 53 points (20-29 FG, 3-4 FT) with 10 assists. On a night where the Cavs started off a bit shaky being their first back-to-back on the early season, their two All-Star guards did what they needed to do to secure a win.
- What Kenny Atkinson had been preaching has come to life thus far. He wanted a more democratic offense to enable more opportunities for others to allow for a more long-term sustainable offense.
- The Cavs have benefited from Mitchell and Garland’s productivity through the first two games, but they haven’t needed it. Tonight, the Cavs needed it. Over the last two years, the Cavs needed it on a more regular basis. Now, they’re beginning to build out an offense that is solely reliant on one or two players nightly outputs.
- Garland didn’t waste any time out of the gate scoring 10 of the Cavs first 16 points.
- While Garland came out hot, the Cavs (as a team) came out a bit sloppy. They turned the ball over four times in the first four minutes and allowed the Wizards to put up 16 points in the game’s first 6 minutes.
- Part of it was likely due to it being the second night of a back-to-back on the road. In his postgame comments, Garland mentioned it took some time for the players to get their legs underneath them – and it showed.
- For the quarter, while the Cavs did put up 28 points, they were only 8-for-20 from the field.
- However, consistent with how it’s gone in game one and two, when they have had some lulls offensive, they’ve been able to supplement that with free throws. The Cavs had more made free throws (9) in the first quarter then they did made field goals (8).
- Luckily the Wizards weren’t any better shooting 37.5% from the field and 27.3% from three-point line.
- Jarrett Allen continues to be Mr. Consistent. He filled up the first quarter stat sheet with 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block and 2 fouls drawn. This was on his way to a perfect night from the field (10-for-10) and a third straight double-digit scoring output.
- As the Wizards and Cavs were both trying to find their way early, the game was tied at 21-21 until the Cavs authored a quick 7-0 run to take the lead for the quarter and eventually into the second.
- To that point about both teams trying to find their way, the Cavs and Wizards combined for three made field goals over the course of five game minutes. Not many turnovers just a lot of missed shots.
- Some of those missed shots early on were from Sam Merrill who has struggled to find his shooting stroke early on. He was 0-for-2 from deep in the first quarter and 0-for-1 from deep in the second quarter, putting up at 1-for-10 from deep on the year at the half.
- Funny thing about that is despite his shooting struggles thus far, Merrill has still been a positive plus-minus every game and is a +27.
- Merrill gets cast as a one-trick pony but that one-trick is very impactful and even when he’s not making shots it’s still creating gravity. He’s also an efficient ball mover (the ball never sticks) and is a willing defender defensively. So even if his shot is off, he finds other ways to make a difference.
- Quick tangent aside, let’s come back to Merrill later.
- Sensing some momentum possibly shifting to the Wizards after a couple of baskets midway through the second, Kenny called a time out. Immediately following that timeout, the Cavs went on a 6-2 run and scored on three of their next four offensive possessions.
- These small things throughout the game separate good coaches from bad coaches, and good coaches from great coaches. Being able to identify game flow to regroup your players and then being able to redirect execution following a timeout is high level coaching attributes.
- However, I will say, one of those three baskets out of the timeout were just players making high level plays. Mobley cleared the defensive boards, went the length of the floor in transition and eurostepped into a finesse finish.
- The number on the back of Jerome’s jersey must be for the second quarter because it continues to be his quarter. Jerome came in with the Cavs up two and helped push the lead to 10 before the Wizards started to get hot from deep.
- His play out of pick-and-roll continues to be a thing of beauty including finding his bigs for dump offs and pulling off some wizardry (see what I did there) on his skip finds.
- One of the fun things to watch on offense for the Cavs now is the way they move the ball and move bodies. It’s still early but the ball doesn’t stick for too long. If someone doesn’t have a look, they quickly get rid of it to the next player. This really makes the defense work and creates more chances offensively the more you can move the ball for looks.
- Speaking of the Wizards getting hot from deep, they went on a quick 13-4 run over the course of 90+ seconds including four threes with three of them coming from Jordan Poole.
- After scoring 10 points the first 9 minutes of the quarter, the Wizards scored 18 points in the final 3 minutes of the quarter to make it only a six-point deficit going into halftime.
- Speaking of Poole: He had 14 first half points and was 4-for-6 shooting. In the second half, he had 0 points and was 0-for-3 shooting.
- LeVert had a little stretch late in the second quarter that helped keep the Wizards at an arm’s length. He led the Cavs with 8 second quarter points all of which came within a three-minute span. At the same time, the Wizards scored 13 points. LeVert helped buoy the Cavs in a time when they needed it.
- Another point to come back to: Mitchell had a relatively quiet first half. 7 points on 7 shots and 2 assists with 3 turnovers. The Cavs haven’t needed Mitchell to take over just yet, but it seems like he’s taken a willing backseat to start games in order to get others going early.
- If you want to call the start of the third quarter basketball that’s fine but it was anything but organized and bordered on chaotic. Somehow the Cavs came out of it with a 10-2 run in the first four minutes to force a Wizards timeout.
- To that point I just made about Mitchell having a quiet first half, he aggressively came out in the third quarter looking to prove a point. He followed a step back three up with a bully drive to the basket followed by finding Garland for a three-pointer. It doesn’t take much for Mitchell to make his impact felt and this was the beginning of an impressive second half for Mitchell.
- Kenny continued to mix in a little zone throughout the game this time going for some extended possessions in the third quarter. The zone looks have seemingly come after timeouts which makes it a tougher task to adjust to for opposing teams.
- I enjoyed Allen telling Mobley anything you can do I can do just as good sometimes. In as many offensive possessions, Allen faced up for a dribble drive slam and found Garland on a nice set play for a layup. Think it goes without saying: Continue to use your bigs as playmakers, because they are!
- The third quarter was the Cavs dynamic backcourt clicking to the very best of their abilities. While Mitchell started to assert his dominance, Garland continued on an already strong start. Garland getting back to his finesse finishes around the rim and in rhythm three-pointers are good indicators that Garland should be okay. These are the type of plays that fans have seen Garland make time and time again and getting back to these plays are indicators of health.
- The Wizards didn’t have much going offensively in the third quarter (29.6% FG%) but still managed to put up 28 points. How? They got the Cavs into foul trouble early and milked the bonus. They went 9-for-10 from the free throw line and made a -10 for the quarter look a whole lot better than it actually was.
- The Cavs shot 65.2% in the third…so yeah, it could have been bad.
- Mitchell and Garland combined for 21 points and 4 assists in the Cavs 38-point third quarter.
- Circling back on another point, re: Merrill: He hit one three in the third quarter and then proceeded to go 2-for-3 in the fourth quarter.
- Circling back on another point, part two, re Mitchell: He continues to be good at basketball. After a 10 point, 1 assist third quarter he followed it up with a 13 point, 2 assist fourth quarter. At one point he accounted for 10 straight Cavalier points and helped push the lead to 24 points, and pretty much put the Wizards away.
- Kenny could once again rest easy with his fourth quarter rotations as Jaylon Tyson saw some early fourth quarter minutes, and his victory lineup played about half of the fourth quarter.
- The Wizards may be good one day, but that day was not today, and certainly not with how the Cavs have been playing offensively.
- After a 59-point first half, which isn’t bad, the Cavs followed it up with a 76-point second half.
- Saturday was the Cavs best defensive performance on the year shooting percentage wise holding the Wizards to 38.5%.
- The Wizards led for 14 seconds the entire game. The Cavs led for the other 45 minutes and 25 seconds. Dominance from start to finish.
- One final note on this game: It's been enjoyable to see the way the Cavs build their leads for no other reason then it's due to effective and efficient offense. Nothing seems gimmicky or forced or overly reliant on one player. They're taking good shots, they're moving the ball and moving people, everyone is contributing and their offense is working. They haven't faced a tough test yet but the way they're playing makes you believe it's sustainable.
- This was a fun game, but serious fun awaits the Cavs. The first three games were good confidence builders and games they should win like they have. Now, they face an early season test over the next five.
- They play the Knicks on the road on Monday, then are home to the Lakers and Magic and have a home/away dual with the Bucks. By the time November 5 rolls around we should really see how seriously we should take the first three games and how much more they need to improve.
- But for now, we enjoy the offensive progress and how this team has looked. Monday should be fun in the Garden, as it always has been.
- Up next: Monday on the road versus the Knicks at 7:30PM (ET).