Winners and Losers from Cavs Game 2 victory over Heat

It’s not all great even in a postseason win

The Cleveland Cavaliers' win had extreme highs and lows in their narrow 121-112 win over the Miami Heat to take the 2-0 series lead.

Winners

Donovan Mitchell’s Closer Gene

The Cavaliers may have adjusted their offensive approach, but when it matters most, they still lean on the old formula—Donovan Mitchell closing the door. After surrendering a 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter and nearly letting the Heat all the way back in, Cleveland turned to Mitchell once again. With the score at 101-99, he checked back in at the 4:25 mark, ready to take control.

During that stretch, Mitchell went on to score 10 of the Cavaliers' next 12 points to seal the game away from the Heat. This isn’t new to the Cavaliers, who have often asked Mitchell to deliver the deathblows to opponents.

However, it has not been the default option for the Cavaliers' offense this season. This is good, that when Mitchell is needed, he still has the killer instinct to detect when it’s appropriate and that he can deliver in these moments.

Three-point record broken

In the second quarter, the Cavaliers made history as they converted 11 three-point attempts. This record was one more than the previous record of 10 set by four teams, including the 2016-2017 Cavaliers.

It was a crazy barrage of three-pointers and felt like the Cavaliers were set to put this game away early on. The 11 threes only came of 16 attempts, so it was a hyper-efficient quarter and felt insurmountable for the Heat to recover. They finished the game 3 three-pointers away from tying the NBA playoff record for most made attempts in one game.

Evan Mobley Offensive Aggressiveness

After Game 1, concerns over Mobley’s offensive play were circulating. The aggressiveness, the confidence, the intuitiveness...where did it go? Apparently nowhere. Mobley looked like the version of himself we got accustomed to in Game 2.

Mobley was aggressive from the perimeter, stretching the floor with an effective 3-6 from beyond the arc. The willingness Mobley had to initiate fast breaks and remain an active part of the offense was night and day compared to the version we saw in Game 1. The rebounding still wasn’t where you would want it to be, but this is trending in the right direction.

Losers

The Bench is still underwhelming

This is a perfect example of box scores misleading you. The Cavaliers' bench all had positive plus-minus’s and the eye test showed that they all struggled to impact the game offensively. Even the lord and savior Ty Jerome looked mortal in this game and it was noticeable.

Wade and Okoro were still largely non-factors. Jerome and Hunter struggled to get it going offensively. The only passable option on the bench was Merrill, who did a great job of keeping Herro in front of him pretty much all night and hit timely threes. These types of performances against better reinforcements from the opponent will show how much the second unit is dropping the ball, thus far in the postseason.

Interior Defense

The point of the two-big lineup is to create a stout interior presence defensively. The Cavaliers in Game 2 were essentially allowing the Heat to score early and often in the restricted area.

The Heat scored 44 points in the paint and were allowing second chance opportunities off of Miami misses (9 offensive rebounds). The Heat are a taller unit but the Cavaliers are infinitely more talented. To give up this advantage to lesser units decreases the margin of error for the Cavaliers.

Preemptive Cavalanches

I will be the first one here to say it, the Cavalanche has gotten too corporate. Shortly after the Cavaliers made 5 straight threes early in the second quarter, the arena was flooded in “snow” to signal a Cavalanche was underway.

Now, was it cool to see the organization buy into a fan-created gimmick? Yes, however, it was not cool that it quickly felt a little premature as the Cavaliers nearly blew the game. This would be up there with meme-able offenses the likes of Jason Tatum’s “get the f*** outta here” and Grant Williams' “ima make them both”.

Word of advice for the staff member at Rocket Arena who gets to push the button. Maybe, just maybe, give it till it seems the game is nearing the end on a Cavalanche, rather than the possibility of confetti being on the floor in what amounts to a loss for the Cavaliers.