Cavs 98, Pistons 78 (or, Mobley v. Motor City)

The last time the Cavs met the Pistons in the regular season, Cleveland ceded an eye-popping 37 points to Detroit in the opening frame, and Saddiq Bey scorched the Cavs for six treys. In spite of solid play from Kevin Love, Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and the Cavs try-hard second unit, it was a demoralizing loss, one that stung doubly since it followed directly on from an L to the Bulls in what had been probably the most important game of the 2020-21 season. Referencing the lingering hopes of the franchise and its fan base after the Detroit game, CtB’s Chris Francis summed it up with his subtitle: “play-in? PLAY-IN???!!!”

Fast forward to November 2021. Detroit is at the bottom of the East and the Cavs are in the middle of the pack. With all due deference to Ricky Rubio and the retooled second unit, the difference is Evan Mobley. So this game was decidedly about the maturing of the youth movement, and the main storyline so far as the Association is concerned is that of the matchup between two top draft picks of 2021, Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley.

Since Detroit looks primed to tank again, all they can really look forward to is something like a Rookie of the Year campaign for Cunningham. Cade was coming off a 20-point performance, a rare win for the Pistons, in Houston against Jalen Green. But Cunningham was clearly outperformed by Mobley in this game, both in their one-to-one matchups, in the overall box score, in the highlight reel, and in the final score. The Cavs won comfortably.

In Cavs personnel news, the good news was that Kevin Love is back with the team, and was on the bench. Awaiting participation in a team practice, he looks to be back on the floor soon. The bad news was that Lamar Stevens went down in the first quarter with what looked like a badly sprained ankle and may be out for the immediate future. The play on which he was injured starts at :13 of the following highlight package, guarding a fast break by Josh Jackson.

Pity the Big Man

Coming into the game, the Pistons announced that their versatile veteran big man, Kelly Olynyk, was out for 6-8 weeks with a “grade 2 MCL sprain.” Facing Mobley, Allen, and (as it would turn out) Tacko Fall, the Pistons front court began this one at a decided disadvantage. Isaiah Stewart, their 2^nd year prospect and ostensible cornerstone center of the future, pulled out a vintage “Isaiah Hartenstein v. Rudy Golbert” performance – that is to say, he committed two fouls in the first 82 seconds of action and sat down for the rest of the quarter. (For the record, Hartenstein collected two fouls in his Cavs debut in a mere 32 seconds of play.)

Luka Garza, who had been in the same early-foul position in the Pistons’ prior match up against Houston, filled in competently, but neither he nor Trey Lyles made a significant impact in their frontcourt minutes, combining for a modest 4 rebounds and 7 points in 29 minutes. The refs were calling moving screens with some regularity in this one, and the Pistons negated several possessions as a result.

Jarrett Allen was his dominant self, with a couple of spectacular dunks, 7 rebounds and one blocked shot on the evening. His playmaking and ball-handling in the post wasn’t flawless, but he continues to expand his game.

The Jarrett Allen Poster Tour continues. Sheesh.

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) November 13, 2021

Stewart was frustrated for the whole night. His only attempt to go one-on-one against Mobley resulted in a turnover, and the Detroit center emerged with only 2 points to go along with his 7 rebounds as consolation. Sad!

Mobley: The Stabilizer

Shall I compare thee to a wrecking ball? Evan Mobley plays with both an almost balletic grace and a crushing force. It is quite a combination.

Only a few things went wrong for Mobley in this game. He had a rare defensive three-second violation, he fell victim to one questionable foul call where he merely grazed his defender in the air under the basket, and he fell down and lost the ball on a baseline drive. He also had a shot blocked by Frank Jackson (a 6’3″ guard who the Athletic praises for his possession of “a mustache that has given off some serious retro vibes at times”).

But on the whole, Mobley had his way with the Pistons. Mobley forced turnovers, frustrated the Pistons offense to no end, and put his mark on Killian Hayes with an absolutely devouring block (one of three on the night). Mobley demonstrated his defensive chops in the open floor, disrupting a nervous Garza feed to Cunningham which led to a Darius three.

https://youtu.be/G77PCcOEHlI?t=25

On offense, he slammed home a no-look alley-oop from the puckish Darius, took on the baby-faced Stewart with total confidence in the the post, and sank a silky catch-and-shoot three. J.B. also experimented with having Mobley on the floor with four shooters, a combination also tried with Allen at the center. Mobley is the ultimate stabilizer for the Cavs.

Hot and Cold for the Iceman

Isaac Okoro was in his second game back after a hiatus to rehabilitate his hamstring. While he looked great physically and was aggressive, clearly there is still some rust to overcome. He finished with 9 points on 4-12 shooting from the field (1-7 from three), 9 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 turnovers. Not a great line for Isaac but it was about equivalent on this night to Detroit’s ostensible superstar, since Cade Cunningham also finished with 9 points (4-8 shooting), to go along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 7 turnovers.

Okoro had some highlight material, including splitting two defenders right down the middle of the paint and finishing strong in the first quarter. Although he was fouled, he would miss the free throw.

WITH AUTHORITY! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/MiiXkVkGPY

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 13, 2021

In the first quarter, Okoro was guarded by Killian Hayes or Saddiq Bey. Hayes in particular was a nuisance, slapping with strength and at one point tying up Okoro and turning a dunk attempt into a jump ball. Late in the frame, Okoro had two wide-open threes in the same possession; they both clanked. Okoro ended the game 1-7 from three, which doesn’t quite do justice to a couple of bricks he put up and the fact that he was wide open for about half of his attempts. But on the whole his return is very good news for J.B. Bickerstaff and the Cavs. His rebounding and defensive skillset should help a great deal, and his offensive production is likely to tick upwards as he gets back into the groove.

Guard Battles

In other guard and small forward battles, this game featured some entertaining play from Cedi Osman, Dylan Windler, Cory Joseph, and Rodney McGruder. McGruder looked very good in his six minutes of playing time, to the extent that Dwayne Casey might have been better off putting him earlier for the utterly ineffective Saddiq Bey (who on the night went 1-12 with six rebounds and two assists in nearly 32 minutes). They might be in a youth movement, but the first time the Pistons displayed any defensive cohesion at all was when their lineup included both of their veteran guards Joseph and Jackson. As for Cade Cunningham, he is larger than Rubio, but Ricky still fought him to a draw by clawing out the ball a couple of times and confounding the Pistons with his offensive controls. Rubio finished with only five points in this contest but also had five steals and nine assists. We are not worthy!

Cedi also had a quietly consistent evening, scoring 17 points in his 23 minutes of playing time. While he only hit one of his six three-point attempts, he was a major force for the good guys in this game. Although his plus-minus figures were impressive (+13), Cedi was outdone by Darius Garland who along with Mobley ended with a stratospheric +29 on the evening.

Chess Matches

 After some of the curious rotational moves against Washington, J.B. kept tinkering away in this game. In the third quarter he tried some different “four shooters and a big” line ups. In the live thread just after the game concluded, Chris Francis noted:

DG/Rubio/Cedi/Windler/Mobley lineup played 11 minutes, second most of all 5-man lineups:

+72.0 net rating

128.0 offensive rating

56.0 defensive rating

End-of-quarter situations are defaulting to Darius or Rubio letting the air out of the ball and the clock and shooting a long-range three. This is more or less low-risk territory, and Darius knocks these down well enough, but at some point teams are going to load up on him, and Windler is usually over in the corner as a reasonable second option.  Inbounds plays seem to be improving around the margins. At the end of the first quarter Darius inbounded, drove to the hoop, then circled back for an open three. When it works it looks simple.

J.B.’s third unit looked loose and easy when they entered with over three minutes to go in the game. Tacko Fall’s appearance brought joy to Cleveland. Denzel Valentine hit a smooth three then fell down on a rebound attempt. Kevin Pangos got nearly jumped over while fouling a shooter then buried a three. Dylan Windler never stopped hustling (there was one sequence in the third quarter where he was literally everywhere on the court — “The Flash” might be a suitable nickname after all). Triple digits were possible but the Cavs ended this one with dignity for the boys of Motor City, who had been imprinted with the mark of Mobley (‘L’ in the case of opponents) and were on to Toronto.

Randoms

24-second violations aren’t quite in the coaches’ gift to sort out, and the passing instinct is strong in this team, but the Cavs had a couple of preventable violations in this game. One particularly egregious example was an open Windler failing to pull the trigger from the wing and swinging it instead to a covered Dean Wade in the corner. Rubio has a way of pointing at his wrist after stoppages and it’s dumb little stuff like this that might actually make a difference in, to use a Kevin Love-ism, “meaningful games” down the stretch of the season.

Along the lines of meaningful games, the final defensive sequences against Washington were poor and the Cavs lost a winnable game as a result. Like the disastrous final play loss last year at Sacramento, one would hope that the team has gone deep on the tape and can get some reps at the end of quarters and halves in preparation for what will probably be some more nail-biters in the future. This was not that game, however, and the Cavs went home with a laugh and a spring in their step.

This brings me joy pic.twitter.com/pUZnzFJTzq

— Cavs:TheBlog (@CavsTheTweets) November 13, 2021

Best thoughts to Lamar Stevens and well done to the team for an impressive win against the one team in the Association advised by John Beilein. Go Cavs!