In an 82-game NBA season, any team that struggles to start and finds its way to success later has a game where it finally breaks through. If the Cleveland Cavaliers do, in fact, make a run in the second half of the campaign, they might look back at their shorthanded 117-115 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on national television as that pivotal moment.
The Cavs and Sixers were in a boxing match from the opening tip, with 12 ties and 10 lead changes. Philadelphia had three separate double-digit advantages, including an 11-point lead twice. Any time the Wine and Gold fell behind by three or four possessions, it kept cutting into the deficit but couldn't quite get over that hump. That's because Cleveland racked up 18 turnovers, which the opposition turned into 32 points.
Typically, when a team is in the midst of a momentum shift, and there's a mental mistake — like an improper inbound or losing the ball after a steal or stop — it impedes the rest of the rise. Winning a game with self-inflicted wounds and poor decisions is extremely difficult in the first place, but doing so on the road against a revenge-minded Sixers squad that the Cavs smothered in the same arena 48 hours prior makes it even less likely.
And yet, they shook all of it off and just kept playing until the final whistle — down bodies, in a loud environment, and amid their own miscues. It was a win that just felt different, proving that everything doesn't have to be perfect for Cleveland to be the team it wants to be.
“I think the context of that game was unique,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson told ClutchPoints among a small group of reporters Sunday. “Thirty-point win, they get booed; you knew they were going to come out with great force and energy, and they did. I mean, it was a hurricane those first [minutes], really the whole game.
“To meet that resistance, climb back into the game even when we're down and with the crowd and everything. I'd agree with you, considering in the context of the game, most resilient performance of the season.”
While Jarrett Allen doesn't believe it was the first time Cleveland faced that kind of situation this year, he did note that the team's response to its position stood out.
“It didn't feel like we were ever in danger of losing the game or losing our spunk during the game,” Allen told ClutchPoints. “We had that fighting power even when we were down nine, even when we were down at our lowest. I felt like we were going to fight back no matter what. We know they have three or four dominant guys that can go off any night; we didn't let it get to us.”
“We've got guys on this team; we just all want to win,” Craig Porter Jr. added to ClutchPoints. “It's just like that play-hard factor. We've got a lot of guys on this team who will play hard and just sacrifice for others. We all just buy into each other. We all just lean on each other.”
Donovan Mitchell was getting doubled from the opening tip, making it difficult for him to find his shot and any kind of scoring rhythm. Obviously, in a career night, Jaylon Tyson was more than up to the task to help him out. But so were his teammates.
In his first rotational minutes in nearly a month, rookie Tyrese Proctor scored 13 critical points and guarded with poise. Two-way forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin — an obvious contract conversion candidate — brought his infectious ferocity with highlight-reel dunks and suffocating defense. And, as a starter, Porter handled the ball as the primary playmaker, dishing out 11 big assists to only one turnover.
“We knew coming into the game they would try to take Donovan away, knowing that Sam [Merrill] and DG [Darius Garland] were out,” Porter said. “And we knew we all had to step up in a different way, so that's just what we focused on. It just adds another layer of confidence.
“When you've got guys like Tyrese coming in and scoring more points than he plays minutes, I mean, that's big. You need things like that, even Jaylon having a career night and just focusing on the little things. I feel like our defense, when Nae’Qwan, me, Lonzo [Ball], and others were in the game, just contributes to winning basketball and sets the tone. And it just helps us understand what we have to do to win.”
Porter believes that he and his fellow young guys are just looking for ways to contribute and stay on the court. Their responsibilities could vary from night to night. No matter what those are, they'll be paramount to Cleveland the rest of the way.
“That Philly game, those are the most satisfying wins,” Atkinson said. “That’s been one of the real bright spots of this season, how our young guys have played, our guys who were here all summer working on their games, so we're just going to keep doubling down on it. We have to, where we are with the injuries.
“We're going to get a little, some inconsistencies with that. I think we played 10 [guys] last game, right? We'll probably live in that world, 9-10. But I'm not going to say ‘Hey, we're just going to play eight.' We're going to play our vets. We're going to keep doing it by committee and keep trusting our depth and our youth.”
Allen felt like Friday gave all of them an extra boost of confidence that they could play at the highest level.
“The work that they did this summer, the work that they put in to try to be the best players that they can, they basically sacrificed their summer and came in here and worked with Kenny, which people know that's not easy to do,” Allen said. “People know he's going to push people the hardest they can so that they can be the best. I'm proud of these guys for being the best that they can.”
Are the Cavs primed for a second-half surge?
Mitchell has had to be a hero for the majority of the first half of the campaign by necessity. As the weeks have passed, there seems to have been a shift where that might not have to be the case moving forward. Darius Garland's latest right-toe injury won't help matters, but the team appears to be in a much better mental space to handle such a loss until he returns.
Following an inexplicably narrow win over the Washington Wizards on December 12, Mitchell chose to offer words of encouragement: “Keep chipping. Everybody has a part, and that's where we use it to uplift, as opposed to saying, ‘D***, we didn't do this.' No, let's uplift and go from there.”
“We embraced the frustration,” Atkinson said. “You don’t have a smile on your face when you're losing. There's less joy; it's just how it is, so I didn't look at it as a negative. Just trust our leadership. Donovan's the most positive guy in the world. Like, there was never even a tinge of him [having] a lack of belief in the team or what we're doing. He just kind of doubles down on this group. That helps, that makes my job a lot easier, managing the locker room.”
Cleveland's mental fortitude was exceptional on Friday, and it seems that the wine-and-gold's efforts exemplified what Mitchell preached over a month ago.
“We just kept running our offense. We didn't slow down; we just kept playing Cavs basketball,” Allen said.
With a 7-3 record in their last 10 games, sporting the third-best offensive rating in the NBA (122.2) over the last two weeks, the Cavs are coming across as a group ready to ignite at the right time.
Whether it's indicative of who they really are or fool's gold is up to them.
