The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten away from what’s worked in games 1 and 2. The Toronto Raptors deserve a ton of credit for that. Their physicality with Cleveland’s star backcourt has made it difficult for the Cavs to establish any kind of momentum. At the same time, the Cavs simply need to be better.
Let’s get into what exactly they need to do in Game 5.
1. Reestablish the James Harden pick-and-roll
The pick-and-roll has been a mainstay for the Cavs’ offense since the James Harden trade and was at the start of the series. In Game 1, Harden accumulated four assists out of the pick-and-roll with a big. By contrast, in Game 4, he only had one assist out of that action.
Going smaller and playing less drop coverage has hurt Cleveland’s ability to run the pick-and-roll. Instead of having Jakob Poeltl on Allen, RJ Barrett is the primary defender in the starting lineup. This easily allows the Raptors to switch the action, mitigating any advantage you’re trying to create with the screen.
The Cavs have countered by relying on more guard-on-guard screens. If you’re going to switch everything, you might as well use the guards to create favorable matchups. There’s solid rationale for this. The issue is, guards don’t have gravity going toward the rim. If you cause a momentary mismatch, it doesn’t break the defense because it’s always easier to recover side-to-side than it is to collapse and then try to get back out to shooters.
In short, the guard-to-guard screens don’t generate looks going to the rim. Just somewhat stagnant outside looks.
It’s incredibly difficult to have a good offense if you can’t get anything going inside. Creating clean looks from the outside is predicated entirely on your ability to get to the basket. The Boston Celtics wouldn’t be the three-point shooting juggernaut they are if they didn’t have multiple ball handlers who could beat mismatches and create advantages going to the hoop.
Right now, the Cavs aren’t doing that. They need to get actions going north and south. And they also need to find ways to get Jamal Sheed off Harden. Being able to reestablish the pick-and-roll with the bigs should help with both.
2. Get Jarrett Allen involved in the offense
The Raptors have conceded a mismatch inside by having Barrett guard Allen to start games. They’re okay with Barrett getting beaten inside if it means they can slow down the pick-and-roll and be versatile elsewhere defensively. But right now, they’re getting all the advantages of this strategy without having to worry about any of the consequences.
Cleveland tried to get the ball to Allen on a post-up with Barrett on one of the first possessions in Game 4, but a bad entry pass from Harden resulted in a turnover. For whatever reason, this caused the Cavs to stop looking for Allen altogether as he had just five field-goal attempts in Game 4.
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While we all acknowledge that post-ups aren’t necessarily what you want to construct an offense around, getting Allen involved more when he has Barrett on him would help in a couple of ways.
For starters, Barrett has been Toronto’s second-best offensive player. One of the most effective ways to slow someone down offensively is to make them work on the other end.
Guarding in the post is physically draining. Fighting for position, especially against someone bigger than you, takes a toll. Being intentional about getting Allen the ball is a great way to tire Barrett out.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson has instead opted to keep Allen in the dunker’s spot to use him as a play finisher and a rebounder. In theory, that makes sense. There’s more ways to punish a mismatch than by just posting up, but this more passive role allows Allen to get lost in the shuffle.
Allen’s energy on both ends is tied directly to how involved he is offensively. When he’s getting the ball with regularity, he’s more aggressive in how he fights for position, sets screens, and rolls to the basket. But when he’s only used sparingly, the focus and intensity aren’t there. Instead, he plays like someone who just doesn’t want to get in the way, as opposed to one who’s taking command.
The Cavs need an engaged Allen on both ends of the floor. Their size with their bigs is one of their advantages in this series. But that advantage only matters if they’re doing what they can to maximize it.
3. Win the possession battle
If you wanted to attribute Toronto’s Game 4 victory to one thing, it’d be how they won the possession battle. The Raptors attempted 10 more shots from the field and 13 more free throws. And even though they shot worse than the Cavs, getting more shots up helped overcome that disparity.
Securing defensive rebounds and forcing turnovers led to this.
Offensive rebounds happen for a few reasons, but usually, they can be the result of defensive breakdowns. Every rotation to contest a drive at the rim results in one person who isn’t boxed out. That — combined with the Raptors just playing with more energy — allowed them to control this category.
Turning it over 17 times doesn’t help. The Raptors’ offense in the regular season was predicated on running in the open floor. Giveaways, especially live-ball ones, invite Toronto to do that.
The Raptors have a great defensive team. Their length and switchability allow them to get more deflections than most teams, but Donovan Mitchell and Harden need to be better.
If you go back and look at the guard’s turnovers from Games 3 and 4, you’ll see that a good portion of them were simply from a lack of focus. That can’t happen in games that are this important.
If the Cavs can win the possession game, they’ll easily win Game 5.
4. Donovan Mitchell needs to finish at the basket
The Cavs absolutely do need Mitchell to score. And if he’s going to do that as efficiently as the Cavs need him to, it’ll be because he’s getting to the rim.
Mitchell took 24 shots in Game 4, but only four in the restricted area. He missed all four of them. Overall, he went just 2-10 on shots in the paint.
When he’s not able to beat teams at the rim, he becomes overly reliant on the outside shot. Mitchell is a good pull-up three-point shooter, but that is a much higher-variant shot than what you’d like if it’s going to be someone’s main form of offense.
Mitchell has talked about saving his body for the playoffs. He’s added more elements to his in-between game, particularly with the floater, so that he can be ready for the postseason.
Well, now is the time to show what he’s been saving his body for. The Cavs are two bad performances away from their season being over — and possibly this era of Cleveland basketball as we know it. There’s no reason to leave anything in the tank now.
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