Too much Evan Mobley: Cavaliers in a zone, knock off Thunder 129-122

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Oklahoma City Thunder v Cleveland Cavaliers

Oklahoma City came into Wednesday night with not just the best defense in the NBA this season, but it was on pace to be a historically great defense.

Cleveland put up 129 points on it.

As he has been all season, Evan Mobley’s offensive step forward as a shot creator was the difference — that and Jarrett Allen scoring 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting — as Cleveland won the much-anticipated showdown between the top teams in the Eastern and Western conferences, 129-122.

If this was an NBA Finals preview we are in for a treat come June — it was the kind of intense, highly entertaining game played at a high level we rarely see in January. This is exactly the kind of basketball and stars who can sell the league as the older generation of stars fade — it doesn’t have to be big markets.

“When you see that kind of basketball out there I think any fan [would enjoy it],” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said, via Evan Dammarell of Down Euclid. “I trust it. I trust the product. I trust the quality. Eventually, that’ll win out.”

If you enjoyed this, these teams play again on Jan. 16, this time in OKC.

The Thunder’s defensive pressure and physicality have worn down other East contenders in the past week — Boston and New York — but Cleveland’s offense remained crisp all night. It wasn’t just great individual shot-making (although there was that), both teams generated great looks with crisp passing and player movement. For the Cavaliers, this ball movement is what coach Kenny Atkinson brought with him from his time as Steve Kerr’s top assistant at Golden State. That and Atkinson empowering Mobley and Darius Garland — 18 points, seven assists — transformed this team.

The game started to swing in the third quarter when Cleveland kept penetrating the Oklahoma City defense and getting good shots — the Cavs scored 25 points in the first six minutes of the quarter — while Oklahoma City became flustered for a stretch by the Cavaliers’ zone defense. Then Atkinson put 6’11” Defensive Player of the Year candidate Mobley on Shai Gilgous-Alexander, which proved brilliant. Meanwhile, the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/too-much-evan-mobley-cavaliers-035351263.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2025-01-09 03:53:00

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