CLEVELAND — If the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to do this, if they’re going to topple the best team in the Eastern Conference three more times within the next week, then they’re going to have to make 3-pointers. Lots and lots of 3-pointers.
Nobody is disputing that. Ideally, many of them will have to come from someone other than Donovan Mitchell. For all that went wrong in Saturday’s 106-93 loss to the Celtics in Game 3 of the conference semifinals, there are perhaps two things the Cavaliers learned they can carry forward.
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One of them involves going big. The other means going incredibly small. Either can be effective at the right moment.
Dean Wade provided a lift Saturday the Cavs desperately needed. He made only one 3-pointer, but he added the type of length and range to a lineup the Cavs have been missing the last two months while he rehabbed from a knee injury.
Inserting Wade into the starting lineup seems logical for what is now a crucial Game 4 on Monday. Wade was a plus-12 during Game 3, one of only two Cavs with a positive plus/minus. He made it through 17 minutes in his first game back and conceivably should be able to get more than 20 minutes in Game 4. That’s enough for him to replace Isaac Okoro, who made just 1 of 7 shots on Saturday and missed all four of his 3-point attempts.
It wasn’t just Okoro. Everyone not named Mitchell combined to shoot 5 of 24 on 3-pointers. Aside from the brief reprieve in Game 2 at Boston, when the Cavs finally started to regress to the mean a bit, this has remained one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in this postseason. It’s going to prevent them from sticking around if it continues much longer.
This rolls into the second revelation: After the Celtics blitzed the Cavs early in the third quarter, J.B. Bickerstaff went nearly as small as the roster would allow with Mitchell, Darius Garland, Sam Merrill, Caris LeVert and Evan Mobley for the final minute of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.
The Cavs were down by 15 when Bickerstaff tried it. They cut the deficit to nine early in the fourth, forcing a Boston timeout to slow momentum and get Jaylen Brown back on the floor.
It may not seem like much — the Cavs lost by 13 and the game never was in doubt in the second half — but it opened up the floor and created gaping driving lanes for the Cavs to attack. It also allowed them to attack Al Horford, who turns 38 next month, on nearly every trip down the floor. Boston was unable to hide Horford anywhere defensively.
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I wrote after Game 1 about the idea of playing Merrill alongside Garland and Mitchell. It rarely happened during the regular season because of how small it makes them, but with the Cavs in a big deficit and looking for a spark, Bickerstaff was willing to get unconventional. It was the Cavs’ best five-man lineup of the night (plus-5).
“I thought it gave us space. It gave us a lot of shooting out there,” Bickerstaff said. “We were struggling to score offensively, so I thought we just needed some space and try to put as much shooting out there as we could. I thought it gave us a nice little boost, but I thought it ran out of steam a little bit.”
Certainly, going small leaves the Cavs vulnerable defensively and in rebounding. The Celtics can shoot over the Cavs’ small guards, putting an inordinate amount of stress on Mobley, who must at times guard Horford on the perimeter and still make it back to the paint as the only size option on the floor.
It’s not a lineup that can sustain 10 minutes together but in the right spots can generate the type of shots the Cavs have struggled to make now for a month.
Mitchell was fabulous again, but he had little help around him. Max Strus and Okoro combined to make 2 of 10 on 3s, which is why getting Wade on the floor with the starters can be so beneficial.
Mitchell lamented the start of the game when the Celtics kept getting open looks from 3 after the Cavs did such a great job of running them off the line in Game 2. Several other players and Bickerstaff were rightfully annoyed with the Celtics’ blistering start to the third quarter, as they nearly doubled a nine-point halftime lead to 17 before Bickerstaff called a timeout less than two minutes into the second half.
Ultimately, the Cavs held Boston to 106 points. It’s a manageable figure for a team with Boston’s weapons. But the Cavs failed to break 100 points for the seventh time in 10 playoff games.
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Shooting, shooting, shooting. Despite their best efforts to address it last summer, the Cavs still don’t have enough most nights in these playoffs.
“I thought we did a good job of sharing and creating open (3s),” Bickerstaff said. “We just didn’t make as many as we needed to.”
This is a terrible series to be without Jarrett Allen. The Cavs could punish the Celtics inside with their two bigs. The Allen situation is turning into a peculiar one, but for now, the Cavs can only worry about winning playoff games. Wade at least gives them more size if he enters the starting lineup. The “all guards and Mobley” look gives them space and driving lanes.
The Cavs have to try something. The momentum from that stunning Game 2 win quickly vanished under a flurry of baskets to start the third quarter.
Shooting, shooting, shooting. The Celtics have it. Do the Cavs?
Required reading
- Vardon: Of the Cavaliers’ playoff losses, why did Game 3 have Donovan Mitchell most upset?
(Photo of Jayson Tatum, Dean Wade and Al Horford: David Richard / USA Today)
Jason Lloyd is a senior columnist for The Athletic, focusing on the Browns, Cavs and Guardians. Follow Jason on Twitter @ByJasonLloyd
