Winners and Losers: Cavs vs Blazers – Evan Mobley’s defensive masterclass is wasted

The Cleveland Cavaliers were run off the floor by the Portland Trail Blazers. Let’s talk about it.

This week began with Jaylon Tyson calling out the team for their lack of effort. It seemed like the Cavs took his comments to heart in their following win over the Indiana Pacers. That was a good step forward.

Tonight was two steps backwards.

The defense was lost. A combination of bad effort and miscommunications led to countless breakdowns. Then, on offense, the Cavs’ process dissolved into poor three-point shooting and contested looks at the rim. Those misses turned directly into Portland runouts, where the Cavs looked a step slow all night.

You can’t control everything. But the Cavs were visibly frustrated with their own poor shooting tonight. Sulking, playing with your head down, and not getting back on defense is inexcusable. Cleveland shot 13-52 from downtown and almost every miss felt like a backbreaker.

Things were getting bad in Rocket Arena. So bad, that the home crowd began booing the Cavs off the floor during a third quarter timeout.

Enter Thomas Bryant.

Bryant understood the situation. Not only did the team need to be re-energized, but the crowd, as well. Bryant started the run by emphatically rejecting the Blazers at the rim, shouting in someone’s face, then drawing a foul on the other end and shouting some more. This got one of the loudest pops of the night from the Cleveland crowd.

As the quarter went on, Bryant continued to breathe life into the arena. He gobbled up defensive boards and nailed consecutive three-pointers to bring some excitement back into the Cavs’ favor. The intensity and almost delusional confidence that Bryant has in himself is something that everyone should strive for.

The start of the Cavs’ season has been full of speed bumps. Mitchell and Mobley included. But without these two, I don’t know where this team would be.

Mobley was excellent in this game. 23 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks and 2 steals from Mobley should be more than enough to give the Cavs a chance. He was a one-man wrecking crew on defense and he was making the right play every time he had the ball on offense.

The Cavs want Mobley to shoot more often. Kenny Atkinson said he yelled at Mobley during the game to be more aggressive. But when opposing defenses load up in the paint — and Mobley makes the correct pass — it’s on his teammates to hit a shot. They didn’t tonight.

Finally, Mitchell has had the team on his back all season. He’s played like Superman. And on a night where he had an inefficient 33 points — the Cavs still struggled to compete. This team isn’t threatening with anything less than a perfect night from Mitchell right now. That’s not good.

Mobley and Mitchell haven’t been perfect. But they certainly haven’t been the problem.

The Trail Blazers are the least efficient three-point team in basketball. They do, however, get to the paint at the fifth-highest rate in the league. The Cavs started this game with poor perimeter defense, allowing dribble penetration and failing to cover the three-point line.

That’s a bad combination.

You never want to make things too easy for an NBA player. Forcing your opponent to turn and change directions at least once or twice on a drive. That wasn’t happening in the first quarter. Blazers were getting straight-line drives to the rim whenever they wanted to.

What’s worse is failing to cover the perimeter at the same time. At the very least, you could run guys off the line. But Cleveland’s defense was totally out of whack in the opening quarter, ending in a wide-open three-pointer off a blown rotation to close the first.

I wish I could say things got better as the game went on. It didn’t.

There are plenty of ways to impact the game without scoring. At his best, Lonzo Ball excels in those categories. Defense, rebounding, and using his dribble to create plays for others.

This just isn’t happening right now.

Ball hasn’t looked anywhere near himself as a point-of-attack defender, and he hasn’t gotten to the rim consistently enough to get the most out of his playmaking. His basketball intelligence still allows him to make the occasional pass — but he isn’t generating advantages as he should.

Worst of all, he can’t buy a bucket. Zo shot 1-9 tonight and is shooting 25-93 (26%) from downtown this season, one of the five least efficient shooters in the league. This all culminated when Ball clanked a pull-up three in transition in the fourth quarter, just when Cleveland was starting to claw back into the game. The crowd once again began booing.