Watching the Market: Cavaliers vs. Celtics Game 4

The Cavaliers, while resilient and showing fight, cost themselves a winnable game losing to Boston 102-109. 

Stock up:

Darius Garland and Evan Mobley understood the assignment

Without Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen, the Cavaliers were arguably down their two best players in a pivotal series. These are career-defining moments and it felt like both Garland and Mobley operated as if the team were to go as far as they would take them.

Early on it seemed like the offense was going to run despite the pair. But around the second quarter, both seemed to understand the magnitude of the situation and got going.

For Garland, it felt like the shots he needed to convert on late, he was able to meet the moment. Garland has had good looks for most of the series but it simply felt like they were not falling. Tonight, it felt during stretches that Garland couldn’t miss, he was also great at setting up looks for others when he got into his groove. Garland was one of two players on the Cavs tonight to play 40+ minutes and still netted a positive plus minus (+1).

Mobley, similar to Garland, was tentative off the tip and was shying away from bigger matchups. Once Mobley got comfortable with his back to the basket the floor opened up for him. Finding a groove off the roll with Garland and Max Strus opened up his offensive game along with taking advantage of switches on smaller guards.

Defensively, it was going to be tougher to stand out, when the Cavaliers were having to throw out weaker defensive lineups to alleviate a Mitchell-less offense. Mobley, for instance, looked comfortable at the five. If/when the Cavs lose this series, this should be a beneficial experience in his basketball education.

Stock Down:

Max Strus did not understand the assignment

While the box score would indicate offensively Strus had a good night, the eye test would show that Strus treated the game a little too lax. Strus was blindly aggressive, nearly shooting the Cavaliers out of attempted comebacks.

To accompany Strus not hitting a shot for quarter-long stretches, he was fouling at some of the most inopportune times. The final foul he committed was after a deep contested three, where in a fit of anger fouled Jaylen Brown in the closing minutes.

While Strus wasn’t killing it outside of the first quarter offensively, it is more valuable to have Strus out on the floor in the closing minutes over Sam Merrill due to a stronger defensive presence. For as dialed in Strus was early on in the game, it felt like the longer the game went along, the shorter Strus’ composure got as well.

Executing the little things

Without Donovan Mitchell, it feels like in order to pull wins out, teams have to button up and allow no room for error. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers it felt like the team beat themselves more than Boston did.

All night Boston was able to have Cleveland’s offense collapse on itself for minute long stretches just as the Cavs were gaining their composure. Boston generated 15 turnovers resulting in 26 points off of the blunders. When the team was going to be challenged to cover the points lost with Mitchell on the sidelines execution was paramount.

Overall, it felt like little moments that compiled into bigger issues as the game progressed for Cleveland. Whether it was Tatum able to secure his own offensive rebound twice in the closing minutes while Strus and Wade were already moving back in transition, or just draining the shot clock as the game was dwindling down. For the majority of the game, the Cavaliers played a good enough game to win. But as the game was winding down, it felt like the team got too loose and beat themselves.