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The Cleveland Cavaliers took down the Atlanta Hawks in a potential playoff preview. Let’s go over today’s winners and losers.
WINNER – Cross-Matching
The Cavs started this game by throwing a wicked curveball at the Hawks. Rather than matching up by position, Cleveland elected to stick James Harden on Atlanta’s center, Onyeka Okongwu.
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What does this do?
Well, it allows Jarrett Allen to bump down and defend Dyson Daniels, a non-shooting threat who the Cavs are willing to ignore on the perimeter. That makes it possible for Allen to patrol the paint, while Harden just has to use his bulky, 6’5” frame to avoid being dog food.
Okongwu scored 18 points, but wasn’t able to take advantage of Harden defending him. Harden more than held his own in those individual minutes, and Okongwu isn’t a skilled enough scorer to justify the offense catering to him any more than it did tonight.
We’ve seen other teams implement this same strategy. The New York Knicks love to use Josh Hart in this role. Similarly, the Oklahoma City Thunder do the same with Lu Dort or Alex Caruso. Now… it goes without saying that James Harden is nowhere near as good a defender as any of those guys. But the game plan is implemented all the same.
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Playing 5-on-4 defensively is a huge advantage. Allen was able to ignore Daniels and contain nearly all drives to the basket. That led to a ton of short-mid-range shots from Atlanta. That’s the type of stuff Cleveland will be glad to concede in the playoffs. It helped make the difference in closing time when the Hawks settled for tough middies.
All that’s left is to make sure you don’t get burned on the perimeter. Outside of a brutal second quarter, I thought the Cavs did a good job of running Atlanta off the line and funneling them to the bigs.
WINNER – Donovan Mitchell
You can trust Donovan Mitchell to show up on the big stage. This wasn’t a playoff game, but it’s clear that Mitchell understood the possible implications.
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Mitchell was on fire from the start. He made quick work of the Hawks’ defense, especially when drawing a favorable matchup, like…
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Publish date : 2026-04-09 02:01:00
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