CLEVELAND, Ohio — Donovan Mitchell steps back for a 3-pointer with 1:38 to play, and your stomach gurgles. Heart’s pumping, nerves are spiking, and knuckles are turning bright.
Nothing beats the NBA playoff butterflies.
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Hot take: Cavs fans will enjoy Cleveland’s Round 2 series with the Pacers, which looked during Sunday’s 121-112 loss like it will last awhile, more than its sweep of the Miami Heat. Two reasons:
- Competitive basketball beats watching the Heat book their vacations.
- Cleveland will learn more about its team.
Of course, you enjoyed watching the Cavs buzzsaw the 37-win Heat last round. But how well did that series prepare Cleveland for later playoff rounds? And how much can fans trust great results against a mediocre team?
Sunday’s scoreboard hinted at the answer. Mitchell missed his 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, and Cavs fans left Rocket Arena disappointed.
But the playoffs are defined by problem solving. Playoff atmospheres? By tension. Cleveland’s first-round series lacked both.
Of course, fans prefer their team wins every game. But at this time of year, I’m telling you:
The struggle is the fun part.
Four more takeaways from Cleveland’s Game 1 loss:
2. Bad Darius Garland takes are quickly disproved
Did the Cavs still “look better” without All-Star point guard Darius Garland during Game 1 against the Pacers?
Let’s see:
- Sunday’s first quarter tied Cleveland’s worst offensive period of the playoffs (25 points).
- The Cavs shot 23% from the 3-point line on just nine made 3-pointers.
- And their defense didn’t look as dominant against the Pacers’ top-three playoff offense as it did against the Heat’s 16th-ranked unit.
Against Indiana, the Cavs need Garland’s scoring, shot creation and ball handling to keep pace. This is a big boy playoff series between two elite offenses. Cleveland’s biggest advantage is depth of star power.
And we saw Sunday how it looks when the Cavs are missing that edge.
3. No such thing as too much Evan Mobley in Round 2
All-Star forward Evan Mobley tallied 20 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes during Game 1. Nice numbers, but I see room for bigger ones, particularly when the Pacers put center Myles Turner on the bench.
Indiana has three backup center options, and none can guard Mobley. Forwards Obi Toppin and Pascal Siakam are too small. Center Thomas Bryant is too slow. At any given Turner-less moment, Cleveland’s All-Star center has a mismatch. And it’s incumbent upon both Mobley and his teammates to exploit them.
Feed Mobley the ball more. Urge him to ask for it more. Or both. Mobley can swing games with his skill in Round 2.
I’ll say it again: Feed No. 4.
4. End the silly T-shirt strikes
New series, new playoff-themed T-shirts, new batch of fans who, for some reason, refuse to wear them.
This time, the wine-colored shirts read “We are the diff.” The shirts are free, and Cleveland leaves one on every seat before tipoff. The idea: Support your team, show unity for the TNT cameras, have some fun.
Apparently that’s too much to ask for some of Rocket Arena’s coolest customers. I don’t know how many patrons refuse to wear the shirts, but the number is high enough that Cavs in-arena host Ahmaad Crump made an announcement before the game about it.
Wear the shirts, or we will shame you on the jumbotron.
Good. They should. Few (if any) sports fans’ fashion senses are strong enough buck team spirit.
Once and forever: Just wear the thing. It’s free. It’s fun. You’re sitting down.
Nobody is too cool for playoff basketball.
5. Tip your caps to a coaching legend
Playoff basketball isn’t the same without coach Pop. And now that former Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is pivoting to a front-office role, I’d like to pause and appreciate a modern hoops legend.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called Popovich “the greatest NBA coach ever” before Sunday’s Game 1 for two reasons.
First: Endurance. In a profession often defined by a nomadic existence, Popovich lasted 29 years in one place. It helped to draft players like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and Victor Wembanyama. But winning coaches of talented teams get fired all the time. Messages (or messengers) grow stale.
Never Pop’s.
Second: Across three decades during which the NBA changed considerably, Popovich adapted his teams to fit the moment. In the early 2000s, San Antonio’s dominant defenses shined. Early last decade, the Spurs became basketball’s pre-eminent pace, space and passing factory.
The best compliment I can give these Cavs is that, at their best, their offense reminds me of Popovich’s 2014 championship team.
It’s a shame we won’t get to see him experiment with Wembanyama’s skillset more. But after 29 years spent scheming, the coach has earned a break. Rest up, Coach Pop. Watch the playoffs from home for a change.
Your NBA pals won’t miss coaching against your teams. But they will miss you.
“He just has been a fixture and a symbol of the stability in the coaching profession,” Carlisle said. That’s something that I think is just so rare and it’s the reason, it’s one of the reasons I think he’s the greatest NBA coach ever that amount of years in one place.
“… There’ll never be another guy that, I shouldn’t say that. (Heat coach Erik Spoelstra) might go on forever. But Pop sets the bar high on so many levels of the profession of coaching and also the influence, the positive influence he’s had on the game and the worldwide game.”
