Cleveland Cavaliers Escape with Win Over Milwaukee Bucks Thanks to James Harden and Evan Mobley

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On today's show, Tuesday's win for the Caves over the box was closer than it should have

been, but maybe not for the reason you think why.

I'll explain on this edition of Lockdown Caves.

You are Lockdown Caves, your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast

Network, your team, every day.

Hi again, everybody.

My name is Danny Cunningham and I cover the Cleveland Cavaliers over at my sub-stack,

The Inside Shot.

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We will be talking about why Kenny Atkinson had the right blueprint for the Caves in the

fourth quarter, everything that went wrong during the middle portions of this game.

We are going to begin the show by speaking a little positivity about this game because

ultimately, the Caves did get a 123 to 116 win over the Milwaukee Bucks and there are

some positive things.

I know it was not a game that was as easy of a win as maybe it should have been, as maybe

it looked like it was going to be for the Caves after that first quarter of play.

But the Caves did do a lot of good things in this game and I do think the fact that they

found a way to win this game despite the fact that the Milwaukee Bucks outscored them

by 24 points from beyond the three-point line is something that is both a negative and

positive and we will talk about the negative portion of that coming up in just a little

bit.

But the Caves did something on Tuesday night that they've not done a lot of this year.

They won a game in which they didn't shoot the ball from beyond the three-point arc very

well.

They finished 12 to 36 on the night on threes, which for those of you that are not math

majors, that comes out to be 33.3%.

And this was the 29th time this season that the Caves have shot 33.3% or worse on three

pointers.

They are now 11 and 18 in those games.

That basically means when the Caves shoot the ball just at an average clip, they're one

of the best teams in basketball.

When they don't shoot the ball at an average clip, they're not one of the best teams in basketball.

They are a lottery team.

And like that's not some breaking news, that's not some grand revelation, right?

Like most teams tend to play better when they shoot the ball better.

That's how basketball works.

But I do think the fact that the Caves are able to find a way to win this game against

yes, a bad team.

And it's a game that probably shouldn't have been as close as it was.

All of those things can be true, but the fact that they found a way to win this game,

while allowing the Milwaukee box to make 23-point attempts, while only making 12 of their own,

while at times looking not good enough defensively, at times offensively looking like they were

lost.

I think all of that, while they are trying to work through what they're working through

right now, where the lineups are changing, who's in and out of the lineup seems to be

different every single night, Donovan Mitchell didn't have a good game.

They found a way really, I think, for one of the first times ever, they found a way

to win in spite of Donovan Mitchell, which is a rarity and something I don't think I've

ever said on this show before, but all of these things didn't go the Caves way.

Some of those are self-inflicted, but they still found a way to win.

And yes, again, it's not beating a good team.

Milwaukee bucks are a bad basketball team, and this should have been a blowout victory

for the Caves.

And early on, it looked like it was going to be a blowout victory for the Caves.

But sometimes teams can get hot from beyond the arc, and that happened in the second

quarter of this game.

So the Caves, I do think, deserve some credit for one, not allowing that to snowball and

finding a way to stay in this game offensively, getting a great effort from James Harden.

I want to talk about him.

Evan Moley was fantastic in this game, too.

Like those two guys, to me, were the biggest reasons why the Caves won this game.

So Harden followed up, which was, I think the worst game he's played on the Caves on

Sunday against Dallas, where he had, I believe it was, 13 points on 12 shots.

It was just not, it was the worst game that he's played with the Caves so far.

And he bounced back the way that I expected him to.

At 27 points was 7 of 10 from the floor, got to the free throw line 13 times.

He was fouled on three pointers twice.

And there was another one that he made on a three.

And like that should have been it by the letter of the law.

He was flagrantly fouled on the play.

Nothing was called.

And then he drew a foul on a three very next possession.

But like he probably could have actually gotten more free throws than he did.

I thought James was awesome in this game.

And I thought that he was good on both ends of the floor too.

I didn't think that this was just, oh, vintage Harden offense.

And then not good defensively like offensively, this was vintage James Harden.

He was fantastic, basically in every area scoring the basketball.

I think he could have probably had more assists than he did because again, as I just said,

the Caves didn't shoot the ball very well on Tuesday night.

And that obviously plays into the assist total not just for him, but for everybody.

If you look at it like that.

But I also thought that the effort level from him and really across the board from the

Caves, they didn't have a poor defensive.

I don't want to say a poor defensive game because that's not entirely true.

Like the first quarter defense was good.

The fourth quarter defense was good.

The middle two quarters defense left something to be desired.

But I didn't think it was because of a lack of effort.

And that is something that when we watched them play on Sunday, just the effort defensively

was not there whatsoever.

And this I do think in terms of effort, not always execution.

But in terms of effort, I do think was a step in the right direction in a really good

response to what the Caves did on Sunday.

And I thought James was part of that on the defensive end of the four.

I thought that this maybe was his best.

I know it's not the best statistical game that he had.

You know, you go back to when he had 30 points the other night, I believe that was against

Orlando when he went out there and was just awesome in that game.

Like he's had maybe better statistical games in this one.

But I think that this was the best most complete game that James has played with the Caves

so far.

And I came away from it really, really impressed because two, they needed him to be

this.

We'll talk about this coming up in a little bit.

Donovan Mitchell was not good in this game.

I thought that he had one of his worst games in the season against Milwaukee on Tuesday

night.

And the Caves needed James hard to beat this guy.

And I don't think anybody should have had doubts that, you know, on nights when Donovan

Mitchell isn't doing Donovan Mitchell things.

James Harden needs to be capable of doing James Harden things.

And I thought one of the things that early on, he had a great feel that he knew that Caves

needed him to score because I believe he had 13 or 14 points in the first quarter.

Like he came out aggressively on the offensive end of the floor, which is not something that

he's always done.

I think there have been times so far in his calves 10 year where he's reading the game

and the game is telling him that he's setting his teammates up.

And I thought the read of the game for him.

And Tuesday was that he needed to put the ball in the basket.

And the other guy who like there were two, the two biggest reasons why the Caves won this

game on Tuesday.

James Harden again, he had 27, 5 and 6 and had two steals, did it on 10 shots, got to the

free throw line 13 times, like he was awesome.

I thought again, this was the best game that he's played with the Caves.

And then Evan Mobley.

I thought this was one of Evan's best games of the season.

So he finished with 27 points, 15 rebounds, two assists and also had three blocks.

He was phenomenal in this game.

I also think it's worth noting and we'll talk about this a little bit later on.

He made all three free throws he took in the fourth quarter, missed a pair early on.

But like other than that in the first quarter, he was outstanding.

And I think that this is the version of Evan that the Caves need to consistently get when

Jared Allen is not available.

And we know that Jared is going to miss at least the next two games.

This was the sixth consecutive game that Jared has missed.

And it's been a bit, I think of a mixed bag from Evan.

It's fair to say like he's done some really, really good things and there have been some

games where you are still maybe wanting just a little bit more.

But this was I thought a complete performance because to while the Caves again, we're not

perfect defensively in this game and we'll talk about that.

I promise coming up in segment number two.

But Milwaukee didn't have a lot of success on the interior against the Caves.

Like they didn't rack up the points in the paint.

They did a lot of damage on the outside, which again, everybody could be better there.

But Milwaukee was 17 of 31 in the paint.

Like that is a win for the Caves, both in terms of number of attempts that were taken

in the percentage.

And Evan, I do think had a lot to do with that percentage.

Like there were some shots that obviously he had the three blocks.

There were other ones that he really significantly altered.

I don't know if it was technically a shot in the paint.

Bobby Portis may have been.

It was on the right side of the floor.

Bobby Portis may have been outside of the paint, but like he tried a floater from like 12

feet over I've been globally and he basically had to throw it to the rafters.

And he barely drew the rim on the shot.

And that's like, there's not a stat for that.

You know, Evan doesn't get credit in the box score for that type of play.

But if you watch the game, you can just see where he has this defensive impact.

And I thought overall, like this was one of the best games that he's played and the

Caves needed this.

And I do think too, you know, we talked about on Friday, when the Caves beat Dallas, like

the Mavericks did not have anybody that could defend Evan Moby.

And on Sunday, the Mavericks really didn't have anybody that could defend Evan Moby.

And he did not take advantage in the same way.

Jericho Sims was the starting center for Milwaukee.

And he's, you know, he's an okay third big, I think.

But like he's not somebody that Evan Moby should look at and say, yeah, we got to worry

about that guy defensively.

That guy could slow me down.

Like that is not what should happen.

Evan should, again, and I've said this before, Evan, I would like to see, like almost

take offense to York defending me with Jericho Sims or Kyle Kuzma or Bobby Portis.

Like those are guys that Evan should consistently have his way with offensively.

And I thought he did that really, really well against Milwaukee.

And I think like if you want to take away the biggest positives, maybe it's not the biggest

reason why the Caves won the game.

I might lean June Tardin just a little bit over Evan Moby.

But I think the biggest positive might be the game that Evan had because it wasn't just

the scoring, right?

He had 15 rebounds too.

And like he could have had a couple of more if not for some loose ball fouls that were

called on teammates when he grabbed a rebound.

But just like overall, this was the type of performance that we need to see more of

from Evan Moby.

And then the last thing I will say before we talk about the bad parts of this game, because

those did exist certainly.

But I thought that the Caves came out defensively in the first quarter really strong.

I thought that they set the tone well.

Now it didn't stay that way and they were not perfect defensively.

But the first quarter defensive effort, I sat back and watched and said, okay, this

is what we need to expect this team to look like so much more frequently.

It was almost as if they got the message that Sunday wasn't good enough.

Now it didn't hold up for 48 minutes.

And that is an issue.

And that is something that needs to continue to get better.

But I think in the first quarter, all 12 minutes of the first quarter Milwaukee finished

the first quarter with just 24 points.

The Caves did a really good job defensively.

I thought in all areas they were, they shot 43% from the floor.

They were four of nine from three, which you know, was not great.

But sometimes teams are going to hit shots.

I thought that that to me was, okay, the Caves got the message that Sunday was unacceptable,

unacceptable defensive effort as Kenny Atkins interned it after the game against Dallas.

I thought they got that message in the first quarter.

And then I thought in the fourth quarter defensively, they were really good too.

Because the box hit a ton of threes and we're going to talk about that in just a second.

They hit a ton of threes in quarters two and three.

But then I thought the Caves did a much, much better job in all areas in the fourth quarter.

And yes, Milwaukee did score 29 points in the fourth quarter.

A good chunk of those came out of free throws though.

The box hit 10 free throws in the quarter.

The Caves actually held them to 36% from the floor and 21% from three.

And some of those free throws came in the last 90 seconds of the game or so.

So like overall, I thought that the book ends of this game were really good for the Caves

on both ends of the floor.

Now the middle part needed to be better.

It wasn't all because the Caves weren't good enough, but the fact is they weren't good

enough.

We'll talk about what exactly happened next right here.

I locked on Caves.

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Like I said, this was far from a perfect performance for the cabs and there were times where it

looks like this might be a game that the cabs didn't find a way to win.

Now I do think it probably feels a little overstated because of the three point onslaught

that the Milwaukee Bucks had in the second and third quarters and not all of that was because

of poor defense.

Some of it was not all of it was.

I do think that when the shot quality data becomes available on Wednesday, I'll look at

this and think, you know what, the cabs probably played a little bit better defensively than

what the numbers say in terms of how many points the Bucks scored because in the second

quarter, the Milwaukee Bucks were eight of 12 from three and that at a certain point becomes

unacceptable.

Like yes, they hit some tough shots.

There were a few shots that, you know, Ryan Rowlands hits a step back that's tightly contested

by Dean Wade.

Bobby Portis hit one where James Harden is draped all over him.

I don't know what James could have done differently defensively and he just makes a shot because

he's a good shooter from outside.

Those things, especially against good three point shooting teams are going to happen and

that happened to the cabs and the issue there isn't necessarily that the Bucks kept making

these shots.

At a certain point, especially when Evan Mobley is on the floor and he was on the floor

for part of this, the cabs need to find a way to start to limit those three point attempts.

That to me is the biggest issue defensively.

It's not that they made them.

It's that they then did not force them to take other shots because the Bucks were eight

of 12 from three.

They were actually five of 12 inside the arc in that second quarter.

And the cabs at a certain point needed to try and run the Bucks off the three point line

in a better way that they did.

Sometimes then you get into over committing and that leads to some other problems.

But the cabs got into a bad spot defensively because the Bucks were hitting shots.

And maybe it was for the best the cabs didn't over react.

Like that is something that could be made because then the Bucks did cool off.

And I think the cabs defensively were better in the fourth quarter when Milwaukee was three

of 14 from beyond the arc, but between the second and third quarters, the Bucks just shot

the lights out.

They were 13 of 22, I believe it was from beyond the arc in the second and third quarter.

And like that is just not going to get it done defensively, especially against teams

that are better than Milwaukee.

But that being said, the real issue with the cabs in the second quarter wasn't actually

their defense.

It was their offense.

So Milwaukee won the second quarter, 34 to 20.

They hit eight threes and only scored 34 points, typically when a team hits that many

three pointers in a quarter, I think you expect them to score more points.

Like go back to remember the game the cabs played last month in Oklahoma City and they got

off to that just wretched start.

They were down.

I believe it was 28 to five six and a half minutes into the game.

The thunder in that quarter hit eight three pointers and they scored 40 points.

That to me is more appropriate, just in terms of when you hit this many threes, typically

you're going to score it like if you had X number of threes, you're going to average

out to score X number of points.

And I actually think giving the Bucks eight threes and then them only scoring 34 points

is probably below average for the number of threes that they hit in a quarter.

So if you look at this and say, did the calves need to be better defensively in that quarter,

100%, absolutely not good enough.

But they only scored 20 points and that was the bigger problem because if the calves had

an average offensive quarter, let's say they would have just, let's say they still would

have given up 34 points, but they don't play their worst offensive quarter of the game.

Say they scored 28 points, which is a very average quarter on that end of the floor and

they lose that quarter 30, 40, 28.

Sure, their lead is not as big as it should be.

Sure, there are things to be frustrated about, but it doesn't feel like it's time to

press the panic button defensively because defensively it wasn't good enough, but I think

offensively it was worse.

It to me was more inexcusable to only score 20 points against a bad defense, which is what

the Milwaukee Bucks are.

Like that is something that I look at and say, yeah, defensively it wasn't good enough,

but offensively it was actually worse.

It was a bigger problem on that end of the floor.

Now part of it was, you know, as we said, the Bucks went eight of 12 from deep.

The calves went O of eight from deep.

And when you miss every three pointer you take, it's going to make offensive a little

bit more challenging for you.

And that is something that did happen to the calves in that situation.

That's part of the deal.

So they do have to find ways to be better offensively and defensively in situations

like that.

And I do wonder to how much they allowed the defensive struggles, or even if you want

to spin it positively, which I'm not trying to do here, but even if you want to say maybe

they allowed the Milwaukee Bucks shot making to impact their own offense.

That can't happen because there's going to come a time when the calves are playing

a team better than the Bucks in the postseason, whether it's Toronto or Lando, Miami, Detroit,

Boston, New York, one of those teams that they could see down the line in the postseason.

And that team is going to hit some shots.

They are because that's what good offenses do.

And the Bucks to their credit are a good three point shooting team.

It's the thing that they probably are best at, especially without Yannis in the line

who did not play in this game obviously.

There's going to come a time where one of those teams has a great quarter.

The calves can't afford to have an awful quarter offensively at the same time.

We've talked about this inversely throughout the year, like the calves have let their poor

offense affect their defense.

I thought that they allowed Milwaukee's offense to affect their own offense.

And that to me is just as big of a problem.

It's not one that we talk about all that frequently, but this was not the calves offense affecting

their defense.

This was Milwaukee's offense and the calves defense affecting Cleveland's offense.

I don't think we've seen that as frequently this year.

I don't necessarily think that this is the first time it's happened, but we don't see

it all that frequently.

But this is something that can't happen in the postseason.

And it's a good thing the calves found a way to overcome it and that certainly matters

and is part of the conversation because a win is a win and none of these come easy right

now for the calves and they're very clearly trying to figure a lot of things out.

And I do think the fourth quarter was a step in the right direction as far as that goes

and we'll talk about that coming up in just a second.

And then the one other negative thing I did want to touch on from today's game or from

Tuesday's game, I guess, was down to the Mitchell.

I thought that this was one of the worst games that he's played this season.

So he finished the night.

I believe he had 19 points as I go to the box score here.

He was just four of 11 or four of 14, excuse me, from the floor, one of four from the three

point line, which the one make that he did have came in the fourth quarter was a big shot

to give him credit.

He was 10, 10 of 13 at the free throw line.

So the fact that he got to the free throw line was the best thing he did offensively.

Both he and James Harden took 13 free throws, which has to be the most that they've combined

in a game so far this season.

He had eight rebounds, three assists, four fouls, had a steal, had a block, but he was

a minus 15 in the 34 minutes that he played.

And it felt like he was a minus 15 when he was on the floor because not only was he not

good offensively and I know they showed his eye on at least the NBC broadcast.

That's the one I watched.

And his eye looks nasty like it's his, I believe it's his left eye.

Very bloodshot like it, it looks gross for lack of a better way to say it and I don't

know to be fair.

I don't know how much of it all that is impacting him like I don't know if he's having any vision

issues and playing through it.

I don't know.

And Donovan is a guy that I am willing to give a pass for having a couple of bad games,

which he has had like I did not think he was good on Sunday against Dallas either, but

I'm not going to sit here and over react to it.

But I do think that he was also poor defensively like I thought that he was one of the lesser

perimeter defenders that calves had on Tuesday night.

Back to back bad games for him.

I have a lot of faith that he'll bounce back and be fine.

The one thing that I do think was concerning is that I didn't think he looked all that

explosive in this game.

So I do wonder if that ground injury is something that might be lingering just a little bit

still.

Now, in the fourth quarter, the calves may have started to figure out some things and

I want to talk about what those things are in one stat that I really think tells the

story of this game.

And that's right here.

Unlocked on calves.

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And the fourth quarter for the calves was a really good one.

And part of the reason why it was a really good one is I think the calves are able

to now given that this was the first game all season in which the calves had their full

allotment of wing players available to them.

I think they're able to now experiment with some closing lineups and I think that was

the case for the calves on Tuesday night.

So Cleveland closes game with James Hardin, Donovan Mitchell, Sam Merrill, Max Strus and

Evan Moby on the floor.

Now if and when they're fully healthy and get Jared Allen back, maybe this doesn't

look this way, maybe Jared Allen is out there and you only have one of Max and Sam on

the floor.

But I did think that this was the right decision for Kenny Atkinson.

Now Keon Ellis, I didn't think had a great game in this one.

I didn't think he was particularly good on the defensive end and this was one of the

very few games so far in Cleveland where he's not had a block or steal.

That has been something he's done a great job of causing chaos as we've talked about

in the show.

And I didn't necessarily think that was the case for him on Tuesday, but like he's

done it enough to where I don't think that this should be some concern.

And he did hit a couple of big shots in this game.

He finished with eight points was a plus eight when he was on the floor.

But I thought that closing out with both Sam and Max, even though Max is still finding

his rhythm in the first half he played was not a good one.

I thought he was much better in the second half played around 23 minutes once again.

As he continues in just his second game back from the Jones fractures left foot this

off season.

But both Sam and Max hit a really big shot in the fourth quarter of this game.

Both Sam and Max got a couple of big rebounds in the fourth quarter of this game.

Both Sam and Max did a good job defensively in the fourth quarter of this game.

And I thought that those two were the two best role players for that spot.

They weren't necessarily the two best role players all night.

But in this spot, I felt like Kenny Arkansas made the right decision.

And he's going to have a lot of decisions to make.

And the calves are fully healthy.

They have a lot of guys that probably feel like they should be closing games out.

We've seen Jalen Tyson close a ton of games.

He played like 14 minutes on Tuesday night.

Jared Allen is going to close games out sometimes, but not always.

Like there are going to be decisions to be made.

And I thought Kenny passed this test.

I think that this was the first real test as far as that goes.

And I thought Kenny passed it.

And that's not just because of the cabs one, but I thought this was a lineup that made

sense. And I do think Max is somebody while undersized at the four that the calves have

to play small, Max is the one small that I do think the calves should be comfortable

playing at the four because of his ability to rebound.

You saw it on Sunday when he went out there and had eight rebounds in his first game

back.

And you saw in the fourth quarter of this one.

And even overall, he went out there and he had six rebounds in 23 minutes.

And he had four assists.

He only scored six points.

He missed his first three three pointers horribly.

And then he made his next two and he did miss a wide open one.

But that ended up in an evident mobility offensive rebound and put back in the fourth quarter.

But overall, I thought that closing with Max and Sam was the correct decision and the

closing lineups for the calves.

I think you're going to change frequently, but they're going to be a thing that I've got

my eyes on a lot down the stretch of this season.

And then the one stat that I found to be really interesting from this game is the way

the shots were distributed in the first and fourth quarters.

So the calves are always, I think, at their best when they're playing through one of

their biggs, whether it's Jared, whether it's Evan, I think when they are making sure

that those guys are part of the offensive process, the calves are better than otherwise.

And those two can't necessarily always lead the calves and field low attempts.

And Evan did lead the calves and field low attempts on Tuesday.

He took 21 shots in this game, but they can at times.

And in the first quarter, Evan took eight field goaltems and the calves scored 38 points.

They were awesome.

Like it was a great start offensively to this game or excuse me, 37 points a square.

And then in the fourth quarter, Evan led the calves with five field goaltems.

So he had 13 of his 21 field goaltems combined in the first and fourth quarters.

The calves won those quarters, 75 to 53.

I don't think that's coincidental.

Now it wasn't always force feeding Evan the basketball.

Like he had a couple of offensive rebounds, a couple of putbacks.

Like there was one where I don't think James got an assist because Evan kind of batted

the ball off the backboard.

But James had this remarkable no look past Evan Mubli in the lane.

And it's plays like those where you're getting Evan involved.

And he can be such a presence near the basket.

Like he was to me again, one of the biggest reasons why the calves won this game.

And the fact that they involved him the way that they did both to start the game and to close the game.

I think is a blueprint that needs to be followed a little bit more frequently than it typically does include.

Now that's going to do it for this edition of Lockdown Caves.

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