Get too deep, and it's hard to recover. Get too deep against good teams and it's even harder to recover. Despite no Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams or Alex Caruso, it was no problem for the Thunder. They blitzed the Cavs to the tune of 28-5 to start the game, and the Cavs looked like team that was a shell of themselves. They settled in and recovered, and even grabbed the lead at one point, but it was only brief as the Cavs couldn't sustain their effort. The Thunder are 76-2 when they have a 20-point leads over the last two years -- so the mountain the Cavs were trying to scale was like Everest. The Thunder exposed some things the Cavs will need to adjust to as they figure out the new normal of being healthy -- how they handle high pressure, what the best starting lineup is, how do they rebound in one big lineups, getting the bigs more consistently involved and how the guards operate down the stretch.
By The Numbers
-14: Cavs starters plus-minus in 5 minutes
+13: Starters plus-minus by swapping Sam Merrill for Dean Wade
10: 1Q turnovers by the Cavs
7: Turnovers by the Cavs the rest of the game
31: Points off turnovers by the Thunder
21: 3PM by the Thunder -- 7.4 above their season average
5: FGA by Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in the first half
12: FGA by Allen and Mobley in the second half
5: FGA by James Harden in the second half
75%: FG% by Donovan Mitchell in the first half
27.3%: FG% by Mitchell in the second half
0: Rebounds by Mobley in the second half in 14 minutes
+16: Cavs points in the paint advantage
46.7%: Thunder's 2P%
By The Players
James Harden: Fine but quiet. On the surface level it was a good game -- 67.2% TS% on 14 FGAs, 9 assists (but 5 turnovers), and 10 points in the 4Q. That's a solid game in its own right but there's also other things that led to the -13. The turnovers. The whole team was plagued by turnovers but 3 of them were Harden's in the 1Q. The 10 points in the 4Q were great but it felt too little too late. The Cavs needed Harden more earlier to help carry the offensive load and had just 10 points in the prior three quarters. The Cavs were also 15.5 points were defensively with Harden on the court. He was too easily screened leading to three-point makes, and was getting beat off the dribble forcing help. The Thunder took away the Cavs P&R and it muted Harden's impact with it.
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Donovan Mitchell: 14 points on 8 shots in the 1H but 6 points on 11 shots in the 2H. The Thunder had a very clear strategy -- blitz, trap and pressure P&Rs, creating pressure and not letting Mitchell get downhill off the screens. Mitchell was able to beat it in the 1H and made some tough shots. But those looks were unsustainable and the Thunder were willing to live with it. Mitchell's holding of the ball, and trying to beat the traps with dribbling, to a lackluster second half. The Thunder bet on the tough shots being unsustainable and they bet right. Similar to Harden, overall, a fine game but there were things within the game that pointed out issues with how the play unfolded.
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Dean Wade: Another hit came to the 'start Dean Wade' campaign. Wade didn't make it to the second half starting group and was instead relegated to the bench. The starting unit got blitzed, and while it's not all on Wade, there wasn't anything tangible he was able to offer. He was 0-for-1 on 3's and his off the bounce playmaking is non-existent which made him just another player on the floor. Merrill's insertion helped rebalance the floor offensively and is something Kenny will have to think about moving forward. In order to get a spark early in the game, Kenny went to his favorite Wade at the 5 small ball lineup that was a +9 in 8 minutes.
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Evan Mobley: Like Harden and Mitchell there's good with the bad. The good is he's progressing from his injury. 63.1% TS% on 11 FGAs and a defense that was 6.9 points better with him on the floor as opposed to off of it. The type of possessions where he doesn't settle and gets to his spot, are the ones you want to see. 9 of his points also came in the 4Q after a relatively quiet 1H. But then there's the rebounding. The Cavs were actually 2% better on dREB% with him on the floor versus his off but there's is plenty of validity to just 2 rebounds in 25 minutes and zero in the second half. The Cavs didn't lose the rebounding battle on the stat sheet but they also didn't win it.
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Jarrett Allen: Like Mobley, Allen was largely frozen out of the offense to begin the game which has been abnormal for how he's been playing of late. The Thunder blitzing the pick-and-roll left little opportunity for the role and instead the Cavs to rotate the ball for looks or try to get the ball to Mobley or Allen on the short roll and plays to be made from there (which didn't really happen). Oddly enough, despite Allen collecting 13 rebounds the Cavs dREB% was 1.8% worse with him on the floor. Where they got hurt the most is in the 4Q where the Thunder were able to collect a few offensive reboudnds that were backbreakers at that point in time. P.S. Credit to Allen for this finish.
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Dennis Schroder: Credit to Schroder for coming in and helping to stablilize the ship when it looked like it was sinking -- 4 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists. The shot efficiency is still somewhat of a concern (11 points on 9 shots) but the ball-handling and decision making when it's not Harden or Mitchell is vastly improved to where the Cavs were before Schroder.
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Sam Merrill: He might have saved the Cavs second half. Kenny inserted him for a more dynamic look in the starting lineup, and make the Thunder pay for being aggressive, and his 8 3Q points helped loosen the Thunder defense and helped the Cavs float offensively. Merrill has continually played better as a starter this year so it's not a surprise the boost not only helped the team but Merrill as well. When Tyson isn't hitting his shots, or getting time, it puts a lot of pressure on Merril to be the spacer around the core. Merrill led the way as a +6.
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Keon Eillis: He is racking up quite the defensive playmaking highlight reel. He just keeps doing it, and doing it. His hands are so quick, he recovers so well and is adept at creating deflections in the passing lane. The 1-for-4 on 3's limited his value a bit but between his defense and getting out on the break after stops, was a boost for the Cavs bench that had to recover after the starters played like they did. The Cavs were 16.5 points better with him on the floor defensively.
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Jaylon Tyson: Kenny is still trying to figure out this puzzle piece. He's played 18.6 minutes over his last 3 games and played just 16 minutes against the Thunder. Shooting just 29.6% over his last four games hasn't helped much in forcing his way into playing time. It feels like Kenny is choosing to go with Merril (who is shooting well) and Ellis (who is defending well) over Tyson as the game persists and Wade is soaking up any of the "given" minutes being that he's a starter which leaves leftovers to Tyson. Thought Kenny would have went to Tyson earlier, and in a different way, given his ability to be a playmaker and shotmaker out of the short roll, and how the Thunder were defending, but it never materialized.
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Nae'Qwan Tomlin: 9 minutes, 2 rebounds and 3 missed shots including one on Holmgren that he tried to make a poster (and didn't go too well). In games like these, if he can't hit shots when left open it's hard to leave him on the floor. The energy and defense will always have a role but he'll need to find other ways contribute offensively. The offensive rebounding was strong to start the year, and had 2 in his 9 minutes, but there has to be more in hustle points than that. Kenny ended up having to save him from himself as his energy play went a bit in over drive and created more harm than good.
Game Notes
- We talked at length at how the Thunder defended the Cavs and how it presented challenges. The last point: The NBA is a copycat league. Teams saw how the Pacers and others defended the Cavs last year and tried to imitate that. The way the Thunder defended the Cavs will show up again and they'll have to deal with it.
- To that end: It's still a mystery why Allen and Mobley aren't used more as hubs to alleviate ball pressure off Mitchell and Harden, utilize their playmaking and find another way that's not P&R dependent to get them invovled. The way the Thunder were playing would have been a perfect time to try it. Run Harden and Mitchell in off-ball actions around them.
- How the Cavs and how the Thunder met ball handlers off P&R was night and day.
- Kenny made an interesting adjustment in going to more guard-to-guard and guard-to-wing screen actions to mitigate the size the Thunder brought with them on the screens. While the guards/wings could stay in front better, the length the Thunder bigs had was giving them issues in trying to find the short roll.
- The Thunder made 21 3PMs but the way they made them was not anything too complicated. They passed the ball well, they drove and kicked and they screened their shots open. The Cavs were having issues at POA which allowed the Thunder to get into the paint, kick and play off rotations which found them several open shots. The Cavs have also been a poor screen navigation team, and it hasn't improved with Harden, and they fully exploited that.
- Kenny mentioned it in the postgame but the Cavs offense had more to do with their defense than their defense did. The Cavs sloppy play early got the Thunder out on the break and put the Cavs in disadvantages in flipping the floor. When the Cavs have inefficient offensive possessions, it often leads to efficient offensive possessions to the other team.
- Come to think of it -- this kind of felt like the Pacers series. Blitz the ball-handlers, make others make plays, try to be physical on the boards and focus on the three-point line offensively. There's also the 'forgetting the bigs' part too. Just 9 paint + RA FGAs in the 1Q with just 2 of those coming at the rim. Mobley and Allen had just one of those.
- The Cavs have a bad habit of being too comfortbale in trying to shoot their way back into games and settle for shots that defenses are forcing them into instead of trying to play their way into the shots they want. The eventually settled in but the 1Q dug them a hole too deep.
- The disappointing part is if the 1Q wasn't that bad, the Cavs had the Thunder beat the rest of the way. The Cavs were a +7 after the 1Q with just 7 turnovers, a +1 on the boards, and had 10 3PMs to the Thunder's 13 3PM.
- There were a few possessions in the late 3Q and early 4Q where the Cavs held the Thunder off offensively, and had the chance to put together a run of their own, but just couldn't muster enough when it mattered. I do wonder if they had a 7-0 swing to get more than 1 or 2 point lead how the ending would have been different.
- This is really a game where the Cavs could have used Max Strus. His playmaking, rebounding and shooting would have been the perfect complement to help the starters and not rely on Merrill being the only one to do that.
- Giving up offensive rebounds late hurt the Cavs but it didn't lose them the game. Kenny said defensive rebounding is the team's achilles heal and he's right it's an issue to a certain extent. The Thunder had 6 offensive rebounds in the 4Q (kind of reminisicent of the Knicks game earlier in the year) to which Hartenstein and Holmgren had 10 total.
- But the real issue is what happens when the Cavs go to one big. With both bigs, the dREB% was 80%. With just Mobley it was 60% and with just JA it was 58.3%. For as much as the Cavs stagger the bigs, they have to figure out how the rebounding doesn't compromise their pairings. And maybe it's running more Wade and more Tomlin at the 4, and less Wade at the 4 and more Tyson at the 3 to get their rebounding back in shape in those lineups.
- This was a litmus test and they showed they're not quite there yet. The Knicks are up next with a team who is going to pressure them in much the same way the Thunder did.
Box Score & Highlights