CLEVELAND — It wasn’t pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers did enough to escape with a 117-108 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Thomas Bryant said something in the locker room before Sunday’s game that presumably got the team fired up. Although neither he, James Harden, nor Donovan Mitchell would reveal what that was.
“I’m not saying that.”
Whatever it was, it worked, at least for Bryant.
Bryant didn’t disappoint in his first start with the Cavs. He provided infectious energy on a night the team desperately needed it.
“That’s just how he plays,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “If we’re playing a pickup game tomorrow at our practice facility, he’s going to play the same. He’s going to talk, he’s going to yell and scream. … But it’s good to have a good game against your former team.”
Bryant agreed. He said it “felt good” to get the start and pour in 14 points on 6-9 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and two assists, with both Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen missing the front end of a back-to-back due to rest.
“He gets us going every night,” Mitchell said. “There’s a level of consistency with him.”
The Cavs desperately needed that level of consistency, considering all the players they were missing. They rested Mobley (calf), Allen (knee), and Sam Merrill (hamstring) in addition to being without Dean Wade (ankle) and Jaylon Tyson (toe). That’s five guys right there that are a part of your playoff rotations, which includes your starting front court and their depth.
It’s irresponsible to draw declarative conclusions from how this team looks when none of the five-man lineups — even this starting lineup — should be sharing the court in the postseason. And if the Cavs are forced to run out groups featuring Larry Nance Jr. and Nae’Qwan Tomlin because of injuries, they likely aren’t going to be reaching their postseason goals.
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That said, it’s concerning that the Cavs are running into the same issues no matter who is on the court.
Indiana has one of the worst records in the league and has an incentive to make that record even worse, considering the convoluted protections on their first-round pick. That’s why they only dressed nine players for this game, and started two guys on two-way contracts.
Still, Indiana’s hustle and commitment to trying to play the right way defensively stood out. The Cavs were once again a step slow on that end, and the communication wasn’t crisp. This led to easy shots and defenders with their palms up in frustration after the ball went through the net.
It’d be easy to explain this away as the Cavs being down so many key players. However, this is something we’ve seen with this group for the last several weeks, no matter who’s in the lineup.
Cleveland locked in late defensively. They surrendered just 17 points in the fourth quarter, paving the way for what ended up being a mostly stress-free victory.
Atkinson attributed the turnaround to getting energy from a group captained by Nance, Tomlin, and Craig Porter Jr. “That was the group that shifted the momentum,” Atkinson said. “Larry and those young guys changed the complexion of the game.”
It also helped to get superstar performances from both Mitchell and Harden.
Mitchell was able to get into the lane at will in his 38-point outing. He went 14-18 (77.7%) on shots in the paint, which included going 10-12 (83.3%) at the rim.
The only thing that could stop him was turning his ankle late. Afterward, he insisted that he was fine. Hopefully for the Cavs sake, he is. They need him at this level if they want to meet their postseason goals.
Harden, conversely, made sure to keep the offense on track. This included quarterbacking the offense late to ensure it ran smoothly.
“He’ll take what [the defense] gives him,” Atkinson said about how Harden runs the offense in the clutch. “He’ll make the right play. That’s why our clutch rating is so good.”
This was only a clutch game briefly (games within five points in the final five minutes), but the Cavs’ offense was superb down the stretch. They scored 11 points in three minutes late that took things from a four-point game to a 1-point advantage, effectively ending the game.
This has been nothing new; the Cavs have the third-best offensive rating in the clutch (131.9) since Harden’s debut. That bodes well for a team that has previously struggled to close playoff games offensively.
Despite scoring 28 points and having seven assists, Atkinson was most impressed with Harden’s defense to the point that he remarked to his staff during the game that “he’s our best defender” this evening.
“I was thrilled with his defense tonight,” Atkinson said of Harden. “He’s sitting down, he’s guarding. … He’s so solid. He’s always in the right place. Got great hands, smart as heck. I’ll take that any day of the week. … He really knows his personnel, right? He knows who he’s got to close out too hard. He knows who he can back off of. He just manages the game defensively.”
As mentioned at the top, it’s difficult to take too much from this game. Despite injury scares to Mitchell (ankle) and Max Strus (wrist), the Cavs seemed to have escaped this game mostly unscathed. That’s what matters on a night like this when one more win ensures them home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and there’s little to play for.
“The most important thing for us is getting healthy,” Harden said. “When we do that, we can figure everything else out.”
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