‘Different look’ with Evan Mobley could jumpstart Cavs’ James Harden, Donovan Mitchell

If the Cleveland Cavaliers want to fix their current shortcomings offensively vs. the Detroit Pistons, they should put the ball in Evan Mobley’s hands as a primary initiator more often. With James Harden dominating the ball so much, plus Donovan Mitchell being denied and put in contested positions in the paint, the Cavs’ All-Star backcourt has been unable to consistently pierce the interior.

If they’re not going to run high pick-and-roll with Jarrett Allen, going the opposite route with inverted screens could be the answer to solving Detroit’s hounding perimeter defenders.

“We talked about it in the huddles,” Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson told ClutchPoints after Game 1 in his press conference. “I think Evan’s in a good offensive groove right now, especially the way, again, they’re playing our two guys tough. So it gets him downhill, gets him some freedom. He had that one where they went under, and he shot the three. We can get good stuff out of it. So definitely something we’ll keep looking at.”

According to NBA.com, Mobley has driven the ball 50 total times in the playoffs. Compared to his peers in the league with at least that amount, he has the highest field-goal percentage by far (68.2%). He’s in the middle of the pack with his eight assists and five turnovers, but it is much more productive than Harden’s 7-to-13 mark. Unless the All-Star veteran guard is attacking to score, it’s been detrimental.

To this point, the Cavs have only made Mobley the pick-and-roll ball-handler for 17 possessions. The results haven’t been completely efficient with just 0.71 points per possession, but the Toronto Raptors are different schematically, and the principle worked well against the Pistons. It’s because the seven-foot forward’s penetration forces them to react.

“It’s a different look for us,” Mobley told ClutchPoints postgame in the locker room. “Definitely gets me downhill and me coming downhill, I think it’s a good option for us. And from there, they help, or they don’t help. I get to the rim, but yeah, I think that’s a good offensive option for us.”

This could be a way to get Cleveland’s star guards going, too. On catch-and-shoot opportunities in these playoffs, they’ve both been subpar to put it nicely. In the regular season, Harden shot 43.9%, and Mitchell shot 40.8% from long range off a pass. If each can knock down a few, the Pistons will have to close out harder on them as perimeter snipers instead of expecting penetration.

That’s better than continuing to hunt matchups in isolation and coming up empty, or in Harden’s case, getting the ball poked away by aggressive defenders. Live-ball turnovers have been a death knell in the playoffs.

“Definitely were some self-inflicted, but I think there were spacing issues, screening issues,” Atkinson said Wednesday. “That’s my job as a coach. The self-inflicted ones, these guys [have] got to take responsibility and try to be better, but we tried to figure out tactically how we can help them. We’re an offense based on shared principles. There’s a lot of moving pieces, a lot of cutting. There’s a lot of different things, and there’s definitely been slippage there.

“Maybe it’s the Toronto thing where we’re facing trapping and blitzing. This is more of a traditional defense, so we’ve got to get back to more of our traditional principles that we’re doing all year, if that makes sense. So maybe the Toronto thing threw us off a little. So, today’s session was doubling down on our shared principles, and we want to move on every drive, pick-and-roll, what the spacing looks like, when we pop, when we roll. There’s so many scenarios. So, tried to clean that up. That, hopefully, will help the guys.”

This isn’t to say they should completely abandon Mitchell and Harden handling the ball; it should just be more diverse and keep Detroit on its toes.

Cavs have to start quicker in Game 2 vs. Pistons

Atkinson pointed out on Wednesday that there has been a major discrepancy with Cleveland’s halves in taking care of the basketball this postseason.

It’s drastic a 21.6% to 13.7% difference.

“In the first half, games and the playoffs, we are by far the team that turns it over the most,” Atkinson said. “I think by two a game. Then, the second half comes and we’re fifth least [in the] amount of turnovers. So my theory is [that] I think we’re easing into games on both ends. Maybe because we’re a veteran team, I’m not sure. So there’s got to be more force and energy to start the game in the first half.

“I’d like to give myself credit like, oh yeah, sure. It’s your second year, your halftime adjustments. I’m not sure, but I do yell at them at halftime, man. We’ve got to take of it, we got to screen better, we show him clips. It’s like, OK guys, we got to do this from the get-go. So the good news with that is we’re very capable of taking care of the ball. We do it in the second half. So we’ve got to do a better job than the first half.”

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