Watching the Market: Cavaliers at Celtics Game 1

The Cavs couldn’t keep pace in one-sided loss to Celtics.

Nobody is giving the Cleveland Cavaliers a chance in their second-round series against the Boston Celtics. Game 1 showed why as the Celtics ran away with a lopsided 120-95 victory.

STOCK DOWN

Cleveland’s defense wasn’t great. I’m not sure how that changes without Jarrett Allen and Dean Wade. Boston’s offense is electric. They have shooters at every position that can also take advantage of mismatches on the perimeter. It’s the worst possible matchup for a defense that thrives on packing the paint and contesting shots at the rim with their bigs.

The Cavaliers need to do a better job of running the Celtics off the three-point line. You can’t allow Boston to take 46 threes.

There seemed to be some hangover from the Orlando Magic series where they were baiting the opposition to take those shots. Here, the Cavs need to bait their opponent to put the ball on the floor and trust the help and rotations to clean up the mess.

The Cavs probably aren’t going to hold this team under 100 points all series. That’s okay. But, they need to find a way to make it more difficult than they did here.

Anyone trying to guard Jaylen Brown struggled to do so. Brown was hitting from all three levels while also easily getting to the foul line en route to 32 points. There’s not a whole lot you can do when someone of Brown’s skill level has it going like he did. Even Okoro’s excellent defense provided little resistance. Good offense always beats good defense.

Sam Merrill has been yanked into and out of the rotation all year. He got minutes in the first and second half here and didn’t take advantage as he went 0-5 from the field with no points.

Boston’s switching makes it hard for his off-ball movement to be as effective as it needs to be. That said, he needs to capitalize on the chances he gets. Merrill didn’t do that in Game 1.

Evan Mobley finishing inside in the first half wasn’t what they needed in this matchup. The Celtics opened up with Jayson Tatum guarding Mobley and Al Horford on Isaac Okoro. From there, Boston switched liberally on screens which allowed for greater mismatches than Tatum. Mobley wasn’t able to capitalize on any of them at the start.

Mobley missed push shots at the rim with smaller defenders on him in the first half. After that, he willfully passed out of mismatches which plays right into what Boston wants.

Mobley isn’t the mismatch killer someone like Jarrett Allen is. Boston’s defenders are also comfortable guarding all positions given their defensive philosophy. That said, this is an area Mobley needs to be flat out better in. The Cavs don’t have a ton of advantages on the offensive side of the court. This should be one.

STOCK UP

Evan Mobley might have found something in the second half. He was attacking the mismatches he was shying away from with much more force which allowed him to pick up 13 points in the final two quarters while going 6-7 from the field.

The Cavs need an easy button on offense or at the very least, a secondary option that can give them good shots besides Mitchell. Mobley was that in the second half.

Isaac Okoro moving off ball helped neutralize the effects of having Horford guard him at the start of the game. He was active in setting in screens and moving to open space. Once he got there, he confidentially took the shots the defense was asking him to take.

The Celtics will live with Okoro beating them. At the same time, they need him to confidentially be a part of the offense if he is out there. Okoro did that in Game 1.

Donovan Mitchell’s stock keeps rising even after putting on a masterful performance in the first round. He didn’t will the Cavs to victory on Tuesday, but tried his hardest to do so as he put up a game-high 33 points to go along with five helpers in the loss.

There aren’t a lot of pathways to a Cleveland victory in this series. All of them do however include Mitchell being the best player in the series. He showed he can do so.