The Cleveland Cavaliers had another character-building win against the Miami Heat in Game Two of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Cleveland made a record 11 three-pointers in the second quarter of this game. Then they proceed to go four for 15 in the third quarter of this game and allow the Miami Heat to crawl back into it. This is the streakiness of the Cavaliers’ three-point shooting that can drive one right up the wall. The Cavaliers have been one of the top teams in basketball when they hit three-pointers. The key to making the Miami Heat leave their zone defense and play the man to man, which is advantageous to the Cavs, is to hit three-pointers. In the second quarter, that looked easy. In the third quarter, they might as well have been throwing beach balls at the basket.
Erick Spoelstra was going to pull a fast one on the Cavaliers at one point or another in this series. He has built a career on doing this. In this case, the surprise was starting Davion Mitchell. Mitchell has really come into his own this last month. He nearly swayed the game the Miami Heat’s way by being a pest on defense and putting stress on the Cavaliers’ defense by continually driving to the basket. He knows his role and he played it to the best of his ability. You have to give credit to the man for nearly stealing the win for his team.
But the hero of the game was going to be another Mitchell, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ own Donovan Mitchell. Donovan scored 17 fourth-quarter points to rescue a flatlining Cleveland Cavaliers offense. He did this by driving to the hoop himself. A lot like Michael Jordan did in his prime. Donovan Mitchell can get assists off drives to the hoop. That makes him doubly dangerous. You can’t just guard against him scoring. You have to guard against him creating somebody else to score, too.
The Cavaliers’ defense has continued to be awesome. Jarett Allen patrols the paint and guard sideline to sideline. With Cleveland’s Big Men, you can switch who you need to. Evan Moberly and Jarett Allen will hold their own even when they are guarding guards. This is the back line of the Cavaliers’ defense. You might as well call these guys the erasers because they can erase a lot of mistakes in a hurry. That frees up Cleveland’s guards to do their thing. If Cleveland’s guards gamble on defense and fail, the big men have their backs. This is an ideal situation to be in on defense.
The guards’ defense is also been pretty good. The way Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland have been glued to Tyler Herro has been the story of this series. Tyler gets his points, in the Cavaliers get the wins. That is something we need to continue. By bottling up Tyler Herro and not letting him play his game, the Cavaliers have set themselves up for a sweep. The entire key to beating the Miami Heat lies in containing Tyler Herro. The second key to beating the Miami Heat is hitting consistent three-pointers against their zone defense. In this, the Cavs have been good enough to steal wins. The good news is, no other team in basketball is as good at zone defense as the Miami Heat. The bad news is the Cavaliers have not scratched their potential and broken zone defenses yet. This is something we need to do if we want to win a championship.
There are a lot of good things that the Cavs did in this game. The Miami Heat are not done fighting yet. The biggest enemy the Cavs are going to have to battle is overconfidence. This series is not over yet by a long shot. The Cavs need to bring their A game and hopefully obtain a sweep. We need the rest. Get the Miami Heat out of your hair and get rested up for the next series. It will not be easy, but it can be done.
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