Game Night Observations: A Statement Win, Feeling Out the Rotation and Free Throws
That's 15 wins in 21 tries.
CLEVELAND — Since the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for James Harden, Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder earlier this month, they’ve been among the best teams in the NBA. They’ve beaten a mix of good teams and bad teams in impressive fashion, but had been missing a true statement win.
Well, the statement was made on Tuesday night with an impressive 109-94 win over the New York Knicks inside Rocket Arena.
New York’s Josh Hart opened up the scoring less than one minute into the game. Nineteen seconds later, Evan Mobley buried a 3-pointer to give the Cavs a 3-2 lead and they never looked back.
That was the start of a dominant effort for the Cavs, who held the Knicks to their third-lowest point total of the season. That outstanding defensive performance showed the reason why Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson has turned to Dean Wade as the team’s fifth starter, alongside Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Wade is the option at small forward that gives the Cavs their highest ceiling on the defensive end of the floor, and Tuesday night may have been a showcase for it.
“He's elite defensively,” Atkinson said of Wade after the game. “That starting lineup's pretty good defensively. We got Evan, Dean, and JA It's been a great lineup for us, historically.”
Wade opened up the game defending New York’s Jalen Brunson. Brunson entered the evening 0-of-11 shooting with Wade as his primary defender this season. New York’s leading scorer finished with just 20 points on 6-of-19 shooting. He finishes the regular season in three matchups against the Cavs making just 21-of-62 attempts from the floor.
“I think Dean did a really good job tonight of making it difficult for him, making him take tough shots, and then we just had his back the entire game,” Harden said of Wade’s defense on Brunson. “It's not a one-person assignment. It's a team effort, but Dean did a really good job.”
