How Cavs prioritizing Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen is paying dividends: ‘Reward our bigs as much as we can’

Coming off back-to-back quality wins over the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers are finding success through feeding Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. As the wheels have started to turn for the team over the last two weeks, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson is advising Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell to prioritize their big men.

His initial plea came after an embarrassing loss to the Houston Rockets that stalled the momentum they’d built.

“We haven’t been doing that enough,” Atkinson said after Monday’s win in San Antonio. “You’ve got to give them the ball over the middle. You’ve got to give them the ball on the fullback dive. If they don’t touch it, they’re not gonna be as engaged defensively. It’s kinda how it works.”

Cleveland’s All-Star backcourt has taken that message to heart.

“We try to reward our bigs as much as we can,” Garland said following Wednesday’s victory. “We all know that they do a lot for us on the defensive side of the ball, so I try to reward them on the offensive end with some dunks and lobs. Just get it to them in the short roll so they can do their thing.”

“When you get them the ball, their energy level just goes up,” Mitchell stated Monday, noting it’s natural for all bigs while referencing his former Utah Jazz teammates, Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, among other centers.

Healing different finger injuries on each hand, Allen is finding his footing again. In the last two games, he has totaled 43 points and 21 rebounds on 33 attempts from the floor; he didn’t have that many tries in his previous five games combined. Garland and Craig Porter Jr. have pushed the issue, dishing it to the big man 35 times and accounting for nine assists.

“I mean, JA’s always going to bring his all, and he’s always down there banging,” Porter said after last Tuesday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans. “There might be times when he doesn’t get the ball, and he might have to get garbage buckets or whatever. But one thing we know is JA is always going to play hard, and he’s always going to bring it. So we always love him for that.”

“Just making sure that I’m staying involved, making sure that I’m in the right spot at all times, making sure that my picks for the guys are able to get them open, make sure they stay tuned to the game as well,” Allen added Monday in San Antonio. “I just have to do my part and stay on course.”

Mobley’s also benefited from catching the ball on the move. There’s been a lot of pitch and catch with both Garland and Mitchell; they’ve assisted directly on seven of his buckets in the last two games, and he’s returned the favor on handbacks and mid-post passes.

“It’s very nice. I mean, how we’ve been playing, it’s great,” Mobley said postgame on Wednesday. “My guy, DG, always giving me the ball, always giving us the ball. It’s very easy when he gets downhill like that for him to just drop it off to us. It’s usually a score if we get the ball, and if not, also shooting those floaters.

“So I feel like [Wednesday], he got it to us early, and in the middle of the game, [the Suns] started collapsing on it. We’ve got to figure out what the next option is from there, but they’re doing a good job.”

As selfless as they are, and knowing how proficient Garland and Mitchell are as scorers in their careers, it takes a great deal of sacrifice to give up the ball consistently for the betterment of the squad. Garland told ClutchPoints it’s about “playing the game within the game” in that delegation.

“That’s a thing where you’ve got to have that balance between being a scorer and making your teammates better,” Atkinson said pregame Wednesday. “And you’ve got to be careful. You can’t be overly unselfish. That can hurt the team. And Don’s really good about it. I think Darius is like a natural point guard, so he definitely gets it. Don can… he teeters sometimes.

“So it’s part of my job, like timeouts and stuff, just to remind them. I’ll get on Don about a bad shot. I have no problem with that. I think us getting back to being a little healthier is going to help us get back into that rhythm because last season we were phenomenal with our guards balancing the scoring with the playmaking.”

Atkinson feels that putting four guards around either Allen or Mobley has worked well to get them going, especially Porter.

“I think what I’m seeing is a little bit, CP’s almost like a 4,” Atkinson said. “I like the way he plays, the way he rebounds and you can put him on bigger wings and you don’t have to worry about losing the rebounding battle with him either.

“It’s nice we’re getting JA and Evan together, but we’ve struggled when it’s been only one big on the court this year, so it’s nice to see we’re finding lineups around the one big lineup that’s better, a little better.”

The distribution of touches is evening out, shots are falling, and defensive activity is picking up. Besides the aforementioned wretched performance in Houston that perplexed everybody in the Cavs’ locker room, Cleveland has been playing sound, effective basketball for the last two weeks.

“We’re having fun out there, honestly. It’s a lot different,” Mobley said. “Everyone’s playing with energy. We’re coming with pace every single time, playing great defense and letting that defense turn to offense. Cavs basketball.”

“We’re starting to find it,” Garland added. “It’s coming from defense, though. It’s coming from defense and getting some stops, getting out in transition, and then you see where everything else just unfolds.”

If they can rediscover what brought them to the dance last year and apply it to this season, the Cavs could get the mojo back that’s been missing.

“It means a lot to us because we started to see some of the good things that we’ve been playing with for a couple years now,” Garland said. “It’s starting to come back to life. The intensity is starting to pick up a lot more. So when you put the effort in, you get the results. I think we like the results, so we’ve gotta keep putting the effort in.”

“I feel like we’re trending better,” Atkinson added. “Still not there, but trending better.”

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