4 Takeaways from Cavs Game 2 win over Heat

It wasn’t pretty, but the Cavs were able to pull it out when they needed to.

CLEVELAND — It seemed like the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to win easily. They blew open a 19-point lead that led to fake snow being shot down from the rafters in celebration. This had all the makings of a stress-free win to take a 2-0 lead over the Miami Heat.

Things, however, didn’t work out that way. The Heat never quit and the Cavs might’ve during portions of the third and fourth quarters. At the very least, they lost focus on what led to their success in the first place.

Fortunately for the Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell was there to save them. He scored 17 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter while recording six of Cleveland’s seven made field goals in the final frame to give them the 121-112 victory.

Let’s start off there with how Mitchell was able to save the Cavs.

Donovan Mitchell isn’t afraid to relentlessly attack mismatches

Mitchell was phenomenal in the fourth quarter after struggling through the first three. The midrange shot that was there in Game 1 wasn’t in Game 2, but the three-ball more than made up for it.

Four of Mitchell’s six baskets came from beyond the arc. The first three triples resulted from forcing a mismatch with Nikola Jovic. The last came when the Heat were desperately trying to switch Tyler Herro out of the matchup.

Cleveland’s relentless mismatch hunting worked.

“You just keep finding the mismatch and try to manipulate the game,” Mitchell said when asked about how he was able to impact the game in the fourth.

It’s much easier for a scorer like Mitchell to get these shots off when he knows that his defender isn’t going to be able to put a good contest on them. That confidence allowed him to have the explosive fourth quarter that he did.

Evan Mobley is only getting better

Mobley did a good job of putting a poor Game 1 behind him. Extra time in the gym is to thank for that.

“He worked twice as much as anybody,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He’s desperate to be great.”

Touch shots around the rim and this three-pointer were Mobley’s focus during those practice sessions. It paid off. Both were areas he excelled in as he went 3-6 from deep and 4-4 in the paint.

This wasn’t a perfect game from Mobley. He wasn’t a huge factor offensively down the stretch and did most of his damage early on.

It was, however, a nice illustration of how hard Mobley will work to improve on weaknesses. He doesn’t seem satisfied with just being good. That’s an encouraging sign for someone who the Cavs will be relying on to achieve their postseason goals.

“I’ve been telling you all year, this is the worst he’s going to be,” Mitchell said. “And if the worst is All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year, we got something special.”

There’s no adjustment for a significant talent gap

Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra downplayed the importance of playoff adjustments when asked about it before Game 2. “A lot of that is overrated,” he claimed.

Despite what Spoelstra said, it was clear Miami did make adjustments. One of those was to show different looks to Game 1 hero Ty Jerome.

Miami trapped Jerome near midcourt a possession after he hit a first-quarter pull-up three. This seemed to catch Jerome by surprise and he nearly committed a backcourt violation before finding Mitchell with a cross-court pass. Mitchell quickly sent it to Evan Mobley for a cutting, and one dunk.

This play illustrates Miami’s biggest disadvantage. They don’t have the talent to match up with Cleveland one-on-one. You have to overcommit somewhere to take the first problem away. And when you do, there’s plenty more popping up to take its place.

Spoelstra is playing a game of whack-a-mole he can’t consistently win, at least not four times in the next five games.

There isn’t a reason to panic, despite an ugly second half

The corny phrase “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard” applies to the second half. The Cavs didn’t work hard while the Heat did.

Cleveland lost the final two quarters by just eight, but it feels like much more. They were thoroughly outplayed and could’ve dropped this game without Mitchell’s incredible shot-making. That said, there wasn’t anything in the fourth quarter that gave me reason to think that this still won’t be a short series.

Their second-half defensive miscues weren’t from being overmatched or outschemed. They were mostly from losing focus. Once that returned in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, the Cavs once again looked like the far superior team.

The Cavs may lose at least one of the next two in Miami or even both. That can happen in the NBA when three-point variance can easily swing the outcome. But the habits that allowed them to win 64 games were evident when they needed it.

That’s enough reason not to worry about this team.

“I trust this team so much,” Atkinson said. “They’ll be ready. They’ll be prepared. We’ll go at it again. I don’t expect any letdown. ... They know how good this team is. They know we have to do it for 48 (minutes). We got to get two more wins.”