Game 23: Cavs @ Magic 12/11/2023

[ijspeelman]

[Iwasawitness]

Mobley not being here is bad enough but Jarrett Allen battling foul trouble is even worse.

It also can’t help that Cleveland’s three pointers just aren’t falling.

[JujitsuFlip]

Allen fouled out

[ijspeelman]

What was the end of this game lol

Reffing was all over the place for both sides and the play calling was crazy

On to the next one

[jbk1234]

Well, we had one of worsr shooting performances of the season against a team you absolutely have to be able to shoot over to win. My only frustration was with having Merrill out there and not really making an effort to get him looks. You wouldn't put Okoro in and hide him on defense. Specific players are out there for specific reasons.

[JujitsuFlip]

Well, we had one of worst shooting performances of the season against a team you absolutely have to be able to shoot over to win. My only frustration was with having Merrill out there and not really making an effort to get him looks. You wouldn't put Okoro in and hide him on defense. Specific players are out there for specific reasons.

*checks to see who the head coach is*

*...sees it is still Jb*

Yeah man, i wouldn't be too surprised lol

[Iwasawitness]

And worst yet... Cavaliers have a back to back tomorrow against one of the best teams in the league in the Celtics.

[jbk1234]

Well, we had one of worst shooting performances of the season against a team you absolutely have to be able to shoot over to win. My only frustration was with having Merrill out there and not really making an effort to get him looks. You wouldn't put Okoro in and hide him on defense. Specific players are out there for specific reasons.

*checks to see who the head coach is*

*...sees it is still Jb*

Yeah man, i wouldn't be too surprised lol

If you go 9 of 40 from 3 against a team with as much size as the Magic, you're going to go through some things.

I didn't really like how Suggs was meeting Mitchell at half court when he was the primary ball handler and we didn't have a counter in place. I also suspect that dragging a second defender over to him while trying to set a pick does more harm than good sometimes. But if a team like the Magic are going to be that aggressive and have multiple defenders that far away from the basket, you should be a hockey assist away from a really good look.

[JujitsuFlip]

Well, we had one of worst shooting performances of the season against a team you absolutely have to be able to shoot over to win. My only frustration was with having Merrill out there and not really making an effort to get him looks. You wouldn't put Okoro in and hide him on defense. Specific players are out there for specific reasons.

*checks to see who the head coach is*

*...sees it is still Jb*

Yeah man, i wouldn't be too surprised lol

If you go 9 of 40 from 3 against a team with as much size as the Magic, you're going to go through some things.

I didn't really like how Suggs was meeting Mitchell at half court when he was the primary ball handler and we didn't have a counter in place. I also suspect that dragging a second defender over to him while trying to set a pick does more harm than good sometimes. But if a team like the Magic are going to be that aggressive and have multiple defenders that far away from the basket, you should be a hockey assist away from a really good look.

This is at minimum the 3rd consecutive season teams have blitzed our ball handlers at half court and JB still has no answer.

We surrendered a 1st rounder to get LeVert because teams were doing this to us in 2022.

The Knicks smacked us in the mouth (Pat McAfee voice) in the 2023 1st round doing the same thing.

Couple weeks shy of 2024, same song and dance.

[JonFromVA]

I recently commented about how opponents like to pack the paint against us, especially when we play our two bigs; but I saw very little of that from Orlando. Their defenders were staying close to their man and still able to defend our bigs in the paint. Which seemingly left just Garland able to find some shots for mostly himself.

Their currently ranked #3 on defense, so, they've quickly turned that around much like we did a couple years ago.

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

[ijspeelman]

I recently commented about how opponents like to pack the paint against us, especially when we play our two bigs; but I saw very little of that from Orlando. Their defenders were staying close to their man and still able to defend our bigs in the paint. Which seemingly left just Garland able to find some shots for mostly himself.

Their currently ranked #3 on defense, so, they've quickly turned that around much like we did a couple years ago.

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

The only player I saw them egregiously do it to is Okoro

I can remember a specific one where Okoro was calling for the ball because of how open he was, but he didn't get it (but I cannot find the clip... it was sometime in the first half)

This has nothing to do with spacing (and you cannot see the beginning of this play based on this clip), but watch Garland. He had been working hard all game to find mismatches and exploit them leading to him shooting a +4% TS% with 36 pts. Well he finally gets Bitazde and he passes to Niang to quickly reset, but Niang goes into a DHO and Mitchell doesn't see (or doesn't pass) to Garland and shoots the long three. The shot clock is at 5, but that is enough time for Garland to get a better shot in the mismatch imo

[ijspeelman]

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

This is the half court offense (saying this bc I'm ignoring our transition and semi-transition plays) that helped us come back from 71 - 89 to 94-99 in 7 minutes

Fake drag screen for Merill that looks to become a pindown screen from Tristan for Mitchell. Garland sees an opening to the rim and takes it and Tristan smartly cuts into the open paint

Spanish PNR that is too easy

Out of bounds play that throws to Tristan, inbounder (Garland) sprints into DHO with Tristan and leads to a floater

I cannot look at full play right now, but this is the one where Garland finds his mismatch, but instead Niang runs a DHO with Mitchell

Garland Strus PNR leads to Garland Tristan PNR where Harris attempts to get around and Bitazde steps up so Tristan slips the screen and finds himself in open paint and the decision between going for the rim or picking on Suggs for which pass will be open (gives Mitchell a look and then throws to Wade in the corner)

Double screen for Garland where Wade pops and Tristan screens and then re-screens. Again, Garland's defender (Paolo) tries to go over and Bitazde steps up so Tristan slips leading to open dunk

This is just a simple Garland Tristan PNR where Franz tries to go over and Tristan slips, but Bitazde allows Garland into the paint to disallow the dump down to Tristan, however I think Garland has a lob to Tristan once he hits the free throw line and probably some lanes for passes for threes (all hard passes, but Garland can make them)

Something is happening in the corner (lol) that preoccupies the defense and leads to a lane for Mitchell who gets fouled

Overall, this run of plays plus the boost our defense gave us helped propel us close to finishing the Magic out. I think we did fairly well down the stretch with play calling. Maybe a bit too much of the same, but overall they didn't really have a counter

[JonFromVA]

I recently commented about how opponents like to pack the paint against us, especially when we play our two bigs; but I saw very little of that from Orlando. Their defenders were staying close to their man and still able to defend our bigs in the paint. Which seemingly left just Garland able to find some shots for mostly himself.

Their currently ranked #3 on defense, so, they've quickly turned that around much like we did a couple years ago.

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

The only player I saw them egregiously do it to is Okoro

I can remember a specific one where Okoro was calling for the ball because of how open he was, but he didn't get it (but I cannot find the clip... it was sometime in the first half)

This has nothing to do with spacing (and you cannot see the beginning of this play based on this clip), but watch Garland. He had been working hard all game to find mismatches and exploit them leading to him shooting a +4% TS% with 36 pts. Well he finally gets Bitazde and he passes to Niang to quickly reset, but Niang goes into a DHO and Mitchell doesn't see (or doesn't pass) to Garland and shoots the long three. The shot clock is at 5, but that is enough time for Garland to get a better shot in the mismatch imo

Agreed, Okoro was an exception they made (and we couldn't/didn't exploit that).

On that last clip, Mitchell also could have just driven to the hoop with all that space, but probably forced up the 3 to try to get us back in the game.

I suppose given we hadn't been shooting the ball well in the first place hoping to catch fire at the end of the game was a case of wishful thinking. Might had been smarter to ratchet up the defense and take the 2's, especially against a young team that might just lose their composure.

Also, I read a comment from an Orlando fans who was amazed we were still trapping Banchero after turning his ankle.

[JujitsuFlip]

I recently commented about how opponents like to pack the paint against us, especially when we play our two bigs; but I saw very little of that from Orlando. Their defenders were staying close to their man and still able to defend our bigs in the paint. Which seemingly left just Garland able to find some shots for mostly himself.

Their currently ranked #3 on defense, so, they've quickly turned that around much like we did a couple years ago.

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

The only player I saw them egregiously do it to is Okoro

I can remember a specific one where Okoro was calling for the ball because of how open he was, but he didn't get it (but I cannot find the clip... it was sometime in the first half)

This has nothing to do with spacing (and you cannot see the beginning of this play based on this clip), but watch Garland. He had been working hard all game to find mismatches and exploit them leading to him shooting a +4% TS% with 36 pts. Well he finally gets Bitazde and he passes to Niang to quickly reset, but Niang goes into a DHO and Mitchell doesn't see (or doesn't pass) to Garland and shoots the long three. The shot clock is at 5, but that is enough time for Garland to get a better shot in the mismatch imo

Garland's reaction to Mitchell air balling a 3 while Garland has the mismatch is everyone's thought, like c'mon man.

Mitchell just likes playing hero there really isn't 2 ways about it. It's led him to the playoffs every season in his NBA career, so i understand why his ego is inflated as a scorer. At some point he will hopefully figure it out, probably won't be in a Cavs uniform but maybe one day he'll get it. Kind of reminds me of the exact same sentiment fans had for Sexton... As much as things change, they stay the same.

[JonFromVA]

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

This is the half court offense (saying this bc I'm ignoring our transition and semi-transition plays) that helped us come back from 71 - 89 to 94-99 in 7 minutes

Fake drag screen for Merill that looks to become a pindown screen from Tristan for Mitchell. Garland sees an opening to the rim and takes it and Tristan smartly cuts into the open paint

Spanish PNR that is too easy

Out of bounds play that throws to Tristan, inbounder (Garland) sprints into DHO with Tristan and leads to a floater

I cannot look at full play right now, but this is the one where Garland finds his mismatch, but instead Niang runs a DHO with Mitchell

Garland Strus PNR leads to Garland Tristan PNR where Harris attempts to get around and Bitazde steps up so Tristan slips the screen and finds himself in open paint and the decision between going for the rim or picking on Suggs for which pass will be open (gives Mitchell a look and then throws to Wade in the corner)

Double screen for Garland where Wade pops and Tristan screens and then re-screens. Again, Garland's defender (Paolo) tries to go over and Bitazde steps up so Tristan slips leading to open dunk

This is just a simple Garland Tristan PNR where Franz tries to go over and Tristan slips, but Bitazde allows Garland into the paint to disallow the dump down to Tristan, however I think Garland has a lob to Tristan once he hits the free throw line and probably some lanes for passes for threes (all hard passes, but Garland can make them)

Something is happening in the corner (lol) that preoccupies the defense and leads to a lane for Mitchell who gets fouled

Overall, this run of plays plus the boost our defense gave us helped propel us close to finishing the Magic out. I think we did fairly well down the stretch with play calling. Maybe a bit too much of the same, but overall they didn't really have a counter

One thing stood out to me looking at the videos you assembled is how much we rely on a 2-man game with the other 3 just standing around. Given Orlando was respecting our shooters, I certainly get wanting to exploit the space they were giving us; but tough shots around the rim are not the ideal outcome, and by the end DG was clearly losing his legs which contributed to his shots and our comeback falling short.

We have a lot of scoring talent between Garland and Mitchell, but that's just our baseline. If we use the whole shot clock and involve all 5 players we should be able to generate easier shots even for players having a bad shooting night and just blow games wide open.

I really wish Rubio was with the team, DG and Mitchell could really use someone to remind them and show them there are other ways to attack a defense. Certainly that's not coming from JBB, who see's tall players and benches the one guy in CPJ who could make a difference just by the energy he brings.

[JujitsuFlip]

An adjustment from JBB would be nice, but Mitchell and Garland should have more of a clue how to lead a team .vs. an aggressive opponent than just trying to take them 1v5. I agree Merrill could have been part of a solution, but we struggled to create more shots for him after the first quarter.

Didn't we used to have some double drag screens in the playbook? I could swear.

This is the half court offense (saying this bc I'm ignoring our transition and semi-transition plays) that helped us come back from 71 - 89 to 94-99 in 7 minutes

Fake drag screen for Merill that looks to become a pindown screen from Tristan for Mitchell. Garland sees an opening to the rim and takes it and Tristan smartly cuts into the open paint

Spanish PNR that is too easy

Out of bounds play that throws to Tristan, inbounder (Garland) sprints into DHO with Tristan and leads to a floater

I cannot look at full play right now, but this is the one where Garland finds his mismatch, but instead Niang runs a DHO with Mitchell

Garland Strus PNR leads to Garland Tristan PNR where Harris attempts to get around and Bitazde steps up so Tristan slips the screen and finds himself in open paint and the decision between going for the rim or picking on Suggs for which pass will be open (gives Mitchell a look and then throws to Wade in the corner)

Double screen for Garland where Wade pops and Tristan screens and then re-screens. Again, Garland's defender (Paolo) tries to go over and Bitazde steps up so Tristan slips leading to open dunk

This is just a simple Garland Tristan PNR where Franz tries to go over and Tristan slips, but Bitazde allows Garland into the paint to disallow the dump down to Tristan, however I think Garland has a lob to Tristan once he hits the free throw line and probably some lanes for passes for threes (all hard passes, but Garland can make them)

Something is happening in the corner (lol) that preoccupies the defense and leads to a lane for Mitchell who gets fouled

Overall, this run of plays plus the boost our defense gave us helped propel us close to finishing the Magic out. I think we did fairly well down the stretch with play calling. Maybe a bit too much of the same, but overall they didn't really have a counter

At the end of the day, that's rudimentary read and react offense; stuff you would do on the playground. Same stuff JB has been running for 5 seasons now, that easily gets picked apart in the playoffs.

Magic also had no real sense of urgency since they were up almost 20 points when the clips start, typical young team taking their foot off the gas.