Cleveland CAVALIERS are ON FIRE 🔥 how did we get here? | Devine Intervention | Yahoo Sports
Whatever the appropriate color scheme of hotness is the Cavs are that we’re coming off of a 118 108 win over the Clippers on Monday night uh again statement win over arguably the hottest team second hottest team whatever in the NBA Donovan Mitchell goes out and he’s dealing with kawh Leonard and Paul
George and everybody else all night and it’s 28 points and 12 assists only two turnovers a couple of steals and a block as the defense continues to pick up from him we’ll talk about that a little bit um the drive and kick playmaking everything opening up it just the game
Just looks like it’s on easy mode for Donovan Mitchell right now cruising to another All-Star selection I have to imagine when the the reserves are announced uh on Thursday night and this has been emblematic of the way the Cavs have been playing you know 10 and two in
January and they’ve got the Pistons coming up on Wednesday so you know you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourselves but 11 and two certainly within Arms Reach um and it goes back really to the the middle of December to you know that moment when there was an
Inflection point in the season you already had Evan Mobley out with arthroscopic knee surgery Darius Garland in the midst of like an up and down start to the season for him fractures his jaw goes on the injured injured list for an extended period And it’s like
They’re 13 and 12 H you know is this is this a team that overachieved last year and is about to dip and then since then 15 and four now they’re only a half game out of third in the East right there like hot on the heels of the Bucks and
The Sixers right there with the the Knicks top 10 level offense uh since the the middle of December best defense in the league since that time how did we get here Justin what when those injuries happened kind of what did that Force the Cavaliers to do and how have they been
Able to benefit from that adversity yeah it’s funny because when the second game against Boston occurred where where the Cavs lost both of those games in Boston Carter and I were sitting there on the podcast being like well you you know what Evan Moy he should be back soon we
Should be getting to full health and we’ve had the second toughest schedule in the league so this is the point where we’re going to go on a run everyone’s going to get healthy we’re finally going to get some continuity and then of course the next day uh Mo and Garland
Get announced out for the next six weeks but even throughout that stretch like even though the schedule was lighter we didn’t know what it was going to look like in the past even though you know the Donovan Mitchell era has been so successful in Cleveland when he’s been
Operating as the lone ball handler W without a point guard the offense hadn’t been as strong now the minutes were still productive but he kind of has struggled in that role historically and I I think there was an expectation that he was going to be a little more ball
Dominant in that stretch they’re going to have to kind of grd it out on defense and they’d have to muddy up the games a little bit and that has been the furthest thing from the case I I think Donovan Mitchell has been playing my favorite brand of basketball that I’ve
Ever seen him play um he is dominating games without dominating on the ball um there’s the team just has so much momentum with with how they play and even the the first stretch like Garland and Moy get announced out Mitchell misses time W with an illness and they
Still manag and they still managed to win I think four of the five games with without Garland Mitchell and Moy like that should not be possible for a team that’s made a consolidation trade that’s a little topheavy so um the way that they’re they’re playing not necessarily faster cuz they’ve actually gone a
Little bit slower since Garland’s been out but they’re playing quicker in the half court the the ball isn’t sticking the they’re getting three-point shots up with with volume and uh while that’s been the way that they’ve wanted to play all season it’s kind of funny that you know through necessity I I think
Sometimes when you have guys like Dean Wade or Isaac okoro that don’t want to step on any Toes that want to make the right play they can be a little hesitant when they get those opportunities but when guys are out it’s okay well the ball’s coming to me and I’m semiopen I’m
Going to take that shot and I I just think that everybody’s been empowered on the offense and it’s been leading to these results and the results have been extraordinarily impressive you know you mentioned the kind of the ball movement and that’s it’s it’s sort of paradoxical
In one sense where you’re like you get rid of or you lose a an All-Star caliber point guard in Darius Garland but the the flow of the of the ball movement seems like it improves a little bit um before Garland went out the Cavs were 18th in passes per game per second
Spectrum tracking 25th in assists 19th in secondary assists and then since you know you mentioned the sort of shift where it’s Donovan on the ball pretty much fulltime and then more low usage ball mover Shooters on the floor it’s first in passes per game eighth in assists 14th in secondary assists these
Sort of General metrics of like this is how you can tell the ball’s popping around and there’s more guys it’s like the the touch time is down the the the flow is just a little bit like un more uncluttered and not necessarily an indication of this is like a you know
Garland was a a sticking point in the offense but it does seem like things get a little have gotten a little simpler in a way that has been a major benefit for or has has like has helped sort of streamline things a and which is against the softer part of the
Schedule as you mentioned let the offense kind of take you know take or at least take flights you know stay afloat there which it was only needed to be like a little bit better than okay with how great the defense is and and so much
Of that goes back to the play of Jared Allen
Yahoo Sports NBA writer Dan Devine is joined by Justin Rowan of The Chase Down Podcast to discuss the Cleveland Cavalier’s recent run and how the team benefitted from adversity.
Watch the full conversation here ► https://youtu.be/8CxCjVKPsls
Be sure to subscribe to “Devine Intervention” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Thanks for watching! Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports channel here ► http://bit.ly/YSportsYT
Follow us everywhere!
Our Site ► http://www.yahoosports.com
Instagram ► http://www.instagram.com/yahoosports
Twitter ► http://www.twitter.com/yahoosports
Facebook ► http://www.facebook.com/yahoosports
Twitch ► https://www.twitch.tv/yahoosports
#clevelandcavaliers #cavs #nba
