Recap: Raptors 96, Cavs 104 (or, Bench Mob Blues No More)
2022-03-07Tonight the Cavs put on a winning showcase for the national TV audience with a methodical win against the Raptors 104-96. The Cavs played their trademark brand of basketball with suffocating defense (held Toronto to sub-40% shooting), hustle (won rebound battle by 13), and unselfishness (won assist battle by seven). Let’s dive right into the game’s takeaways:
1. Breaking News: Jarrett Allen fractured finger
Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star center Jarrett Allen has suffered a fractured finger and is expected to be sidelined indefinitely, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 7, 2022
This news just dropped right after the game. It’s another devastating loss due to injury for the Cavs. Hopefully it’s a non-surgical fracture that can heel before the play-in/playoffs arrive. Rest up big guy, hope you come back 100%!
2. Game MVP: The Bench Mob
As bad as the bench was against Philadelphia, they were just as good tonight giving the Cavs the edge they needed to take home the win. Here were the net ratings on the night:
Just look at those numbers, brilliant aren’t they? Kevin Love continued his Sixth Man of the Year campaign with a near double-double scoring a hyper-efficient 15 points and snagging nine rebounds. Cedi threw in a bench-high 17 points with three assists and two steals. Your truly saved the best for last, the play of the night coming from “James” Dean Wade, pride of Wichita, KS!
DEAN WADE POSTER.
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 7, 2022
That’s got to be in the running for dunk of the year, right?
3. The Cavs’ stars rose to the occasion
The trio of Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Lauri Markkanen really carried the day for the Cavs in terms of having go-to players to finish the game off. All three turned in fantastic double double performances. DG turned in a tidy 17 points and 10 assists, the Finnisher had a team high 22 points and 12 rebounds, and Evan “the Professional” put in an efficient 20 points and posted a career high 17 rebounds. In order to win big in the NBA, a team’s best players have to play their best when the lights are bright. The extremely young Cavs’ stars did just that.
4. What does J.B. do?
With the extended absence of Jarrett Allen, it’ll be interesting to see how Coach J.B. Bickerstaff handles the lineups. Conventional wisdom would dictate going to veteran bench big Ed Davis, but he’s barely played this year (nine appearances), and the minutes load would be a substantial change for his 32 year old body. Personally, it would be nice to see Dean Wade given a shot at the small forward spot and slide Lauri and Evan up a spot. J.B. went with Cedi Osman at the small forward spot to start the third quarter and it was underwhelming. Perhaps Kevin Love is a dark horse to start? It’s hard to imagine J.B. changing his role given how wildly successful and healthy Love has been this season. Watch this space to see what happens.
5. Quick note on the Raptors
Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, and Chris Boucher acquitted themselves well in the loss. Siakam was seemingly the only Raptor who could create his own shot. Certainly Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby were missed because the Toronto bench was completely depleted and got boatraced in their minutes. While the Raptors are still only three games behind the Cavs for the sixth seed, they have now lost the tiebreaker against the Cavs, and have lost three in a row and seven out of their last 10. They need to turn around their fortunes fast if they want to guarantee themselves a playoff berth.
6. Here comes the storm…
The Cavs will now embark upon a brutal stretch of the schedule, just take a look:
If the Cavs can go 4-4 during this stretch, that probably has to be a considered a successful run and would keep them in the hunt for the playoffs. The problem is now they are down their All-Star center. Just a hunch but it feels like Evan Mobley can really break out of his rookie wall slump, stay tuned and Go Cavs!
live thread up
Also, re: JA finger, heard the guys say on the Chase Down pod today that 2-4 weeks is standard for non-shooting hand finger fracture. Assuming we get JA back for last 5-8 games, no way I want him to push the return. Even if he were to miss the rest of the season, I agree with Raoul that the focus should be on next season. Speaking of which, I think we need to start getting the RE-SIGN RICKY! campaign in gear already…
yeah, I’d think the game plan is bring JA back for the playoffs, if they make them. Don’t want to risk further injury to your 100 million dollar investment LMFAO
4 weeks means he gets a couple of games at the end of the regular season, hit the playoffs running.
tomorrow’s game against the pacers is a must win if the cavs want a shot at an automatic playoff series. I would like this team to get at least a series. Garland deserves the stage and I think it would elevate the meaning of this season in a way losing a play in game wouldn’t. I don’t know that this cavs team can overcome a high seed in the east unless 100% of the team that can get healthy is healthy…but I want them to get a shot. And I want to see one series of JB when the season… Read more »
I mostly agree with you, Scotch. Only silver lining to play-in would be keeping the 1st round pick we traded for Levert. How about if we were 9th seed, won the 9-10 matchup at home, then lost to the 7-8 matchup loser? Semi-playoff experience, taste of post-season victory AND we keep the pick?
Would rather get a legit series of experience. We have our core – they just have to keep improving and growing. A late 1st rounder vs mid 1st rounder isn’t that big of a drop off, imo – a crapshoot at that point
yup, would agree…. look how the Jaysons in Boston or Embiid now getting early playoff experience helped develop their games. Both of those teams look like contenders now.
I think JA needs to watch the Willis Reed comeback game. It’s a broken finger on his non shooting hand, tape the damn thing to his other finger and let’s go. Seriously though, it’s a finger, so he can stay in game shape and be ready when he does comeback. We need him for defense, we need him for rebounding. He can do both of those with a less than perfect finger. Grit and grind baby. The rest of the bigs need to put on their big boy shorts and take on the challenge. Fuck giving up the six spot,… Read more »
majorly disagree.
it is reasonable to think the Cavs will be contenders starting next year. there is also a reasonable chance that if JA finishes the season playing with a broken finger that he will never fully recover.
you want to do that to maybe move up from sixth place to fifth?
Raoul, I was kidding about him pulling a Willis Reed. I wasn’t kidding about the other bigs stepping up or for the Cavs faithful to keep the faith. The team needs to not settle, and if you’re healthy and can play, play hard. No excuses.
I am on the fence here. I agree there is great value in Allen showing leadership…but I want to see what JB can do without 2 non-shooting towers who need 30 mins each. The cavs weren’t slaughtering teams by 20+ when Rubio was around because they were big. They’re still big. They were slaughtering teams because they had just enough playmaking to take advantage of each aspect of their roster that was a mismatch. Replacing his ability seems to be beyond our entire bench. We’re not winning a title this year. Give allen two weeks to at least set the… Read more »
Reed was playing in the Finals. JA is not.
Any word on what “indefinitely” means regarding Allen’s injury?
I saw it is in his non-shooting hand, so that has to account for something, right?
I love watching him, plus I have a lot invested in him on my fantasy team…
non-shooting hand seems to be fueling speculation he’ll miss little to no time.
but generically, looking Caruso’s situation, it’d 4-6 weeks out.
too bad the Cavs/Heat game is not flexed nationally this Friday–not sure if NBA has any national availability that night but that would be a good game to flex.
must see TV for sure!
I’m actually of the opinion that Wade should be starting over Mobley at this point in the year and Mobes should have been running point center for the bench unit to develop his confidence and skills against lesser comp, but regardless…IMO Wade’s about to make himself a lot of money somewhere and keep the cavs in the playoff spot hunt (cavs have team option to keep him at 1.9Mil next season but JB seems to hate him so i don’t know if we pick it up). He’s shooting over 40% from 3 in 2022 and plays defense better than any… Read more »
spicy take and I’d like it but Mobley’s too good to not be a starter and get starter minutes.
Wade actually has a league average rebound rate, and its far superior to everyone except Lauri and Windler among the team’s wings. Eye test says Wade massively improves the team’s rebounding rate.
It is confounding that JB doesn’t play him more. He talks so highly of him in his pressers so I don’t think he “hates him” as Scotch suggests, but I find the shortened rotation when it comes to Wade and Stevens just completely baffling on a team that’s so built on the sum of the parts being greater than the whole…
I was being hyperbolic i guess lol. But actions speak louder than words.
9 DNPs for Wade is jaw dropping when you consider how many games he also was only in for garbage time
JB has blind spots and I think it’s due to the fact he’s an NBA coaching lifer, so there’s just some things he won’t budge on.
I think ultimately he lacks the flexibility of someone like a Ty Lue who will experiment, perhaps to a bad degree LMFAO
If he’s playing the 3/4 with the starters he will have to be more purposeful about rebounding is all I mean. League average won’t help. We need him and Lauri to average 18-20 boards a game between them if he is the guy we insert to start. Basically…replace Allen’s individual efforts between the two of them. I’m super sad about Allen but I’m very much looking forward to 25+ wade mins and hopefully some significant stevens mins
JA might be out for the rest of the year.
This should get the total up to about 10 for how many more games the Cavs would have won if they had resigned HardRock. I am still bummed that a good player fell into our lap, and we gave him away for nothing.
Hard Rock was my first thought, too, the moment I read about Frohio’s injury. Time to see if those good Ed Davis games were a fluke or whether he can still do it for 20 min a night.
Yeah, I miss HardRock too, should get a nice pay bump this year in FA.
Ughhhh tough luck on JA. Any word on when LeVert is coming back? Hopefully Rondo is back in a week or so.
If I’m JB, I’m putting Wade in the starting lineup and keeping Cedi coming off the bench. Gonna need some dawgs to step up to stay in the top 6.
LeVert has been practicing IIRC as well as Rondo, they should be available soon.
FWIW, Toronto’s upcoming schedule ain’t no picnic either:
at SA, at Phoenix, at Denver (b2b), at Lakers, at Clippers, Lakers, at Philly, at Bulls, Cavs.
PG: Rondo/Rubio
SG: Sexton
SF: LeVert
C: Allen
An awful lot on the sidelines at the moment.
Yup, 40% of the starting lineup that started the year and 3 key rotation guys total, 4 including LeVert.
Damn. Losing Fro really hurts.
6th is best case for us now. With the play-in being more likely than not in my view. Hopefully we can hold onto 7th-8th so we get a home game and have 2 shots.
Heartbreaking re: JA. We just cannot catch a break… or I guess (more literally) we catch way too many of them! I’ve been an optimist about this team ever since the early weeks of the season, but I think we’re probably looking at 7 or 8 spot in the play-in now. Gotta think Nets or Charlotte can make up 6 games on us without JA. Would be cool if we find some new lineups with Mobley at the 5 when Levert comes back, but I just think JA is too important to who we are to weather this storm…
I’ve gotta sneaking suspicion this is gonna help Mobley’s offense, but we’ll see. On the flip side, he could get worn down because the next few weeks are brutal schedule-wise.
Maybe sprinkle in some small-ball lineups with Wade (or even Love or Markkanen) at the 5 to keep Mobley fresh?
For sure, Lauri/ love lineups are definitely coming, could open a path for Stevens minutes with bench units.
Really miss those stretches where Wade and Stevens were getting bigger minutes. They’re such a part of the Dawg identity that drove our best stretches of the season…
100% agree
Odd but seemingly effective lineup for a stretch in the 4th with Garland, Mobley, Love, Wade, and Markkanen.
Perhaps with return of LeVert we’ll see some small ball now with Allen out. What a piece of bad luck, that is.
yup, good call and I agree. I really like that lineup because of the shooting and defense.
I don’t publish my twitter here as a rule, but I ran this poll recently. Only 18 votes, but I think it speaks to a fan base caught on the fence.
LMAOOOO RUBIO ALL THE WAY!!! He’s a lot cheaper!
Worst possible time for Mobley to lose his partner Allen. He might just vault the rookie wall and dominate, but history says otherwise. Tough couple of weeks coming up I think.
Watched this team live on TV (Dan Gilbert put Cavs on Youtube TV!!!) – anyways a few thoughts team very disjointed offensively when things go slightly awry – never seen a team be so fluid and then look like they never played basketball like the Cavs. Sometimes its when DG is out, but it appeared when JA was out did the offense stutter and sputter I’ve written here and on Twitter that Okoro is a year away from being properly evaluated, but I’m not sure how much inconsistency a team can expect a starter (and top 5 pick) to be… Read more »
Agree with you that Ice was pretty bad last night and the inconsistency is maddening, but that’s what you get from 20 year olds LMFAOOO.
Disagree with you that the Cavs were supposed to blow Toronto out. Toronto’s a good team and the Cavs covered the spread, the Cavs’ defense was elite. If you were expecting a blowout, I think that’s unrealistic expectations.
which is why I prefaced Ice being a year away where we can effectively evaluate him. I still think JB needs to play Stevens more because I see more similarities that I would like between a top 5 pick and an undrafted guy.
As for blowout, Cavs had 16 point lead late in game and started crumbling…lucky the Raps couldn’t hit enough shots…this was a game where they had to put scrappy team away while at home.
yup, would agree that Stevens seems to have more vet savvy than Ice for sure.
That’s fine, for me I’m just not going to put a lot of stock into mid-game margins, since it’s not representative of the full 48.
Taking the full 48 into account and given the missing pieces, comfortable 8 point win against an over .500 is something I’m gonna say is good enough 10/10 times.