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CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t really have anything to really play for. Home court in the first round is secured, and they’re better off not moving up from the fourth seed to the third. Additionally, they’re facing the Atlanta Hawks for two of their final three games — their likely first-round opponent.
Those facts didn’t stop them from going all out and winning a back-and-forth game 122-116 on Wednesday.
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This group with James Harden is still new. They need these reps.
“As talented as the guys that came in are, you still have to be able to have that chemistry and have that bond,” Donovan Mitchell said after pouring in 31 points. “That takes time.”
They also need experience in high-leverage games together. Even though there wasn’t much on the line for Cleveland, knowing how close the playoffs are and how well the Hawks are playing made this the perfect opportunity for a dress rehearsal.
Before the game, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson was asked if he would go with a vanilla game plan against a potential first-round opponent. His answer was no. And the game showed that he meant it.
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The Cavs pulled out several wrinkles that you usually only see in the playoffs. They decided to have Harden guard opposing center Onyeka Okongwu. They also drastically cheated off of Dyson Daniels and Jonathan Kuminga defensively in an effort to clog the paint. These are things that you’d expect to see in Game 1 of a playoff series.
Harden guarding Okongwu made sense and is worth revisiting in the playoffs.
Harden has enough strength to handle bigs in the post. He’s not going to get bullied for easy baskets. And hunting him out for post-ups gets you away from what you normally do, which is what happened here.
Okongwu put up 18 points on 7-10 shooting. Those are good numbers. However, the Hawks lost the 33 minutes he played by as many points. The offense wasn’t able to establish the same rhythm as they had an 83.6 offensive rating with Okongwu on the floor. That’s an absolute win for the Cavs.
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The idea of using Harden to defend a big didn’t happen overnight….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/14-takeaways-cavs-122-116-100000149.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-09 10:00:00
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