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2023-24 Season | Game #44 | Clippers @ Cavs | Jan. 29, 2024 | 7:00 p.m.

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Great ball movement gets Niang a 3!

 
Awesome win, one of the three best of the season, IMO, right up there with the road wins over Philly and Milwaukee. The defense continues to shine. The Clips were averaging 122 points per game in January and the Cavs held them to 108. The offense was not great, but good enough. Too many missed 3's that were uncontested.

Mitchell was phenomenal with 28 points and 12 assists. Okoro helped give the Cavs an 8-point halftime lead with 17 points. Wade was a +20 in 26 minutes off the bench. Allen had 20 and 17. Niang and LeVert were +10 and +8. Our bench was the difference.

Mobley looked better than I expected with 10 points and 9 rebounds in 21 minutes, going 5-for-7. Everybody played well.

JBB had a brilliant substitution with 1:34 to go and the Cavs clinging to a 4-point lead but the Clippers making a run. He put in Niang for Okoro. Second possession Niang drives baseline, beating Kawhi Leonard, and gives Allen a perfect pass for the bucket, giving the Cavs an insurmountable 8-point lead with 37 seconds left.

The Cavs had a 12-point lead with 6:40 to go that the Clippers cut to 4 with 1:34 remaining. It looked like the Cavs were choking, but Mitchell made a huge jumper as the clock expired to push the lead to 6, then Powell just missed a 3 and Allen dug out the rebound.

In the last week the Cavs beat Orlando on the road, split with Milwaukee on the road, and beat the Clippers. Four tough games in a row and they went 3-1. Awesome. They have proven they can play with anyone, and usually beat them. I know the Clippers were playing their third game in four days, all on the road. We won't beat them in LA. But this was still a signature win and the Cavs have to be bursting with confidence right now.
 
Peacedog said:
Niang played several minutes at the 4.
Click to expand...

Whoops. Forgot about Niang. Got a bunch of people @ing me. He did decent but I don't love him as out 4th big off the bench, but I guess it's better than nothing and Mobley can play the backup 5 while we have shooting 4s off the bench.
 
  • This coincided with a bit of a lull offensively for the Cavs. Brad Daugherty noted there was too much standing and not enough movement. Without another distributor outside of Mitchell, the team reverted offensively. The second unit distributor duties fall to Caris LeVert, and depending on which LeVert you get coincides with how the offensive looks. In nine first half minutes, LeVert had 6 shot attempts and at one time had the most shot attempts within his first shift.
  • If the Cavs are going to run LeVert off the bench, they need at least one other playmaker on the floor with him. The 5-man lineup of LeVert-Okoro-Sam Merrill-Georges Niang-Mobley was a -4 in 3:39 played. This is where Garland will help.
  • For most of the first half, the Cavs could have used Garland’s playmaking and shot creation abilities. When you’re facing a team with as many shot creators as the Clippers have, it makes it tough on your team offensively to keep up.
  • This offensive lull had JB Bickerstaff revert back to the lineup that got them onto this streak. They responded with a 14-3 run the last 3:30 minutes of the second quarter which allowed them to take a four-point lead into halftime. This was capped with an Okoro spot-up three-pointer off a Mitchell assist with one second left.
 
Just caught up. Game of the year. Quick thoughts: Niang > PG13. Mobleys integration as the hustle big was a solid TT impression. JBB kept the momentum going and made timely rotations when needed (I'm going to be sick).

Fun game
 
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