Watching the Market: Cavs at Suns

Donovan Mitchell was the one bright spot in an otherwise embarrassing performance for the Cavs.

The Cleveland Cavaliers got taken to the woodshed on the second night of a back-to-back as the Phoenix Suns cruised to an easy 122-101 victory. The loss puts the Cavs just a half-game up on the Orlando Magic for the third seed.

STOCK DOWN

Defense has been an issue since the All-Star break. They’ve been 22nd on that end with a 116 defensive rating in that span. Much of this has to do with opponents shooting 38.9% from three since the break, which is the fourth worst during that period.

Lineups with both Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley continue to struggle with getting out to three-point shooters. Opponents shot 39% from three last season when both were on the floor. This season, that’s jumped up to 40.8%.

Your margin for error is so small elsewhere when you can’t defend the three-point line. And then there’s nights like this where it truly doesn’t matter what else you do if you’re letting the opposition go 18-33 (54.5%) from three.

Caris LeVert looked nothing like the guy he was against the Utah Jazz. Few players have a wider gap between what they look like on their best and worst days. We saw both in just over 24 hours.

LeVert’s worst games feature inexplainable decision-making as was seen in the final three minutes of the opening frame. LeVert turned it over two possessions in a row, including a giveaway under his own basket that resulted in an uncontested layup for Devin Booker. He followed it up by fouling Booker 80 feet from the hoop with three seconds left in the quarter which resulted in two free points. This allowed the Suns to close the quarter on a 17-4 run.

Sam Merrill’s minutes seemed to have disappeared with the guard rotation fully healthy. He played just three minutes outside of garbage time after contributing 18 points on six threes the night before.

The Cavs offense was stuck in the mud all evening and couldn’t knock down anything from beyond the arc (7-26). This team desperately needs some kind of offensive juice. Merrill is one of the few reserves that can provide that in spades when his shot is falling. There’s simply no reason not to at least give him a fair shot in a game like this.

Second-chance points remain an issue on both ends of the floor. The Suns grabbed 30.2% of thier misses (68th percentile) leading to 14 second-chance points. Meanwhile, the Cavs couldn’t grab an offensive rebound as they retrieved just 16.3% of their misses (8th percentile) and just six second-chance points.

There’s no reason a team that starts two bigs like Allen and Mobley should be giving up easy points on both ends like this. It simply shouldn’t happen with this roster construction.

HOLDING

Evan Mobley continues to show flashes of brilliant play. We’re just waiting for him to put it together for a completely dominant game. Bullying Kevin Durant in the paint for an easy basket was one of the plays that stood out from his performance tonight.

STOCK UP

Donovan Mitchell took a little bit of time to get into the game. He had a rough opening quarter and a half which featured getting locked up by Bradley Beal and struggling to get into the paint.

The quick burst and explosiveness seemed to show up at again at the end of the second quarter. He jumped into the passing lane to grab a Devin Booker pass and quickly turned up court to draw a clear-path foul. This seemed to ignite something within his game

Mitchell followed this up with a nine-point third quarter where he briefly brought the Cavs back within 11 points.

He relentlessly kept fighting throughout the fourth and finished with his most complete game since returning from his knee injury. Mitchell finished with 24 points on 8-17 shooting with three rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

Mitchell was still head and shoulders above anyone else on his team even though his knee is still a major issue. His health is all that matters for the rest of the season.