CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The hottest team in the NBA got cooled off.
Barely.
Darius Garland missed a corner three at the buzzer allowing the Philadelphia 76ers to escape with a 123-121 victory at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Here’s our top Wine & Gold Nuggets from Monday night’s loss.
Game of inches – Garland’s three as time expired appeared to be dead on. “I was surprised I was open, I was for sure,” Garland, who scored 21, said. “But it definitely, definitely felt good coming off my hands.” Donovan Mitchell got his own rebound off a missed shot driving to the rim with less than two seconds remaining and kicked the ball out to Garland in the corner. “I thought it was cash, but it's a great look,” Mitchell said. “You take that 10 times out of 10. Love that he got the look and it's going to come back to him for sure.” The Cavs trailed by 10 with over a minute to play and by 7 with 58.8 seconds on the clock before the Cavs’ furious rally down the stretch that gave Garland a chance. “We'll live with that for sure,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We believe in Darius tonight. It just fell a little short.”
Bored with success – Cleveland’s nine-game win streak ended with the loss. Sure, you can’t win them all, but in defeat there’s lessons to be learned. “I think we're always going to give ourselves a shot, but I don't mean to say this in a harsh way, but we kind of deserve to lose this game just based off of how we started,” Mitchell, who led the Cavs with 36 points, six assists, and four rebounds, said. “This is nothing to overreact to and get upset at, but I think the biggest thing is just coming out with the right mentality. We hadn't done that in months, you know what I mean? So it's okay to have a blip on the radar, but for us it's continuing to sustain that and not getting bored with success. And I think we did that at the start. Second half we came out ready to go and then they got hot. They got guys that can get going and we're always going to give ourselves a shot. We were right there, but ultimately that's what happens.” Philadelphia shot 54.5% from the field Monday night and scored at least 32 points in three of four quarters. “We got to come out with better starts and not come out comfortable,” forward Evan Mobley said. “I feel like we let them get comfortable. They're scoring whenever. We got to play better defense and make it uncomfortable for them.” The Cavs and 76ers each finished with 58 points in the paint and 16 second chance points but that was not how the evening started for Cleveland, who played catch-up most of the night. “They had 20 points in the paint after the first quarter I think it was,” Mitchell said. “So we're getting beat and then it's forcing big to be late. It's all in all of us. And I think those are the things that we can control, we can fix. And then when you allow teams to get hot, their confidence builds and we get to a fourth quarter, we're in a dog fight. You know what I mean? So that's a learning lesson. We'll build from it and we'll be fine.”
1-2 punch – Kelly Oubre Jr. and Buddy Hield did a significant amount of damage for Philadelphia. Oubre and Hield finished with 24 points apiece. “They're good players, they can shoot the ball, they've got good size,” Bickerstaff said. “I thought they did a really good job of being aggressive and getting to their spot and get into their shot. So take your hat off to them. They're good basketball players who can create shots.” Oubre added three rebounds and Hield had eight assists before he fouled out in the final minute.
Make a run of it – 10-0 run in less than two minutes in the third quarter gave the Cavs a 77-76 lead after they trailed by 9. During that third quarter stretch Garland scored or assisted on 12 consecutive Cavalier points.
Mobley from deep – Evan Mobley took, and hit, a three in the second quarter. Having Mobley, who made one of two Monday night, attempt shots from beyond the arc is a point of emphasis as Bickerstaff aims to stretch the floor to create more angles and lanes offensively. Mobley has made seven of his last 12 beyond the arc over the last six games. Mobley's 14 point, 10 rebound effort gave him his 17th double-double of the season.
Quarter mark – Jarrett Allen notched his 25th double-double of the season Monday night with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Allen has scored at least 20 points 12 times this season.
Appreciating greatness – The Chiefs third Super Bowl title in five years had Bickerstaff a bit nostalgic before the game. “I love watching teams dominate and go on long sustained runs,” Bickerstaff said. “I love when you see the consistency of coaches, front offices, players on those teams that have helped those teams be successful. Obviously I'm a big Andy Reid fan from his time in Philly and everything, so for me it's like people don't understand just how hard it is to win at that level, right? And everybody wants to critique, and everybody wants to judge. But to see teams dominate like that over that amount of time, especially in that sport with the injuries and all the things that come with football, I think it's a beautiful thing.” Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes helped the Chiefs erase a 10-point first half deficit, led a game-tying field goal drive in the closing minute and then the game-winning drive in overtime. “You knew he was going to win the game,” Bickerstaff said. “When it was on the line, he got the ball in his hands, you knew he was going to win that game and he was going to make whatever the play was that was necessary. There may have been some 49er fans that were still believing, but everybody else knew Patrick Mahomes was going to win it and I appreciate that. And it does translate to basketball, the competition of it all the dynasties that we've had in our sports. You think about obviously the Spurs, the Lakers, the Warriors, what they have done. It's just not easy and I think people should take more time to appreciate that instead of always looking for the reason why this is the downfall of whoever it was. I mean, it's a beautiful thing.”
Starting 5 – Bickerstaff went with Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen Monday night.