Jarrett Allen gave the Cavaliers a little extra juice on Saturday night, and Evan Mobley made it clear Cleveland felt it.
Allen knocked down a 3-pointer against the Brooklyn Nets, the 21st three of his career, in Cleveland’s 125-121 win. After the game, Mobley spoke about what it means when Allen lets it fly from deep this season.
"The team loves it," Mobley said. "Anytime he hits a three, it gives us all energy.
He’s been working on that all summer, so I think whenever the time comes, he’s not backing down from those shots. Tonight, that was a great shot by him, and it just brings us all up and brings us energy, and we just feed off that.”
Allen backed up the confidence with production. He finished with 21 points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes as Cleveland held off Brooklyn.
The bigger issue for the Cavaliers, though, has been holding onto leads long enough to finish the job. Cleveland opened the season with a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers after blowing a 29-point advantage, then nearly let another big lead slip away against the Nets before surviving.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson pointed to conditioning when asked about the late-game struggles.
"I think part of this too is we’re not in elite condition right now, which is kind of normal," Atkinson said. "Second game, getting your rhythm, we’re not there.
I told the guys in the timeout we got to fight through the fatigue. I thought we had moments of fatigue.”
The numbers back up the concern. Cleveland lost to Philadelphia 114-106 after being outscored 37-21 in the third quarter and 32-16 in the fourth. Against Brooklyn, the Cavaliers were outscored 41-29 in the fourth quarter.
That kind of finishing has become a talking point around a team that made the conference finals last season for the first time without LeBron James on the roster since 1992. The Cavaliers also let Game 1 get away in New York against the Knicks at MSG, where they were up 22 points with 8:19 left in the fourth quarter before Jalen Brunson attacked James Harden on defense and sparked a 44-11 Knicks run in the fourth quarter and overtime for a 115-104 win.
For Cleveland, the challenge now is simple: close games better. This season, Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Mobley and Allen are trying to do what LeBron did in 2016, when the Cavaliers won the championship against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors for the only NBA title in franchise history.
The next test comes against the 3-0 Minnesota Timberwolves, a tough matchup for Cleveland against a team led by Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Rudy Gobert, Jonathan Kuminga and Jaden McDaniels.
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For Cleveland, the timing adds another wrinkle to a game that already carries a bit more weight than your typical November matchup. The Cavaliers are coming in mostly healthy, even with a few players still sidelined, and now they may be facing a Minnesota group that is not quite at full strength, with Donte DiVincenzo still working back from his Achilles injury. [Read more 🡒]
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The Cavaliers escaped Brooklyn with a win, but the finish was messy enough to leave a clear lesson hanging over the locker room. Cleveland let a 16-point lead shrink because of poor communication late, a reminder that even a team good enough to keep winning still has to clean up the small stuff before it turns into something bigger.
Minnesota presents the next test, and the matchup will ask plenty of Cleveland on both ends. The Timberwolves have changed the feel of their offense with LaMelo Ball alongside Anthony Edwards, and the Cavaliers will need Peyton Watson to take on the challenge of slowing Edwards while Evan Mobley tries to keep his strong form going against Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels. [Read more 🡒]
Cavaliers Late-Game Problem Could Get Exposed Fast In Minnesota
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Minnesota is a difficult next test because it has looked sharp from the opening tip and has yet to show much vulnerability. For a Cleveland team trying to clean up its closing minutes, the matchup offers an immediate stress test against a club that has been dominant from the start and has not needed much drama to finish games. If the Cavaliers are going to turn those shaky endings into something more stable, this is the sort of opponent that can reveal how far they still have to go. [Read more 🡒]