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CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers played an uninspired first 43 minutes against a tanking Indiana Pacers team that only had nine available players in early April. The final five minutes were different.
Cleveland was up four with five minutes to play before hitting the accelerator. They scored 11 points over the next three minutes to push their lead to 13 as they cruised to what became a stress-free victory.
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Controlling the last few minutes has been a trend over the back half of the season. Since the beginning of February, the Cavs have registered the third-best offensive rating (131) and best net rating (+34.6) in clutch situations (when the game is within five points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime). Before February, Cleveland ranked 23rd in offensive rating and 13th in net rating in that setting.
According to their head coach, there’s one reason for their success: James Harden.
“Give him the ball and get out of the way,” Kenny Atkinson said.
That simple plan has worked. The Cavs had an outrageous 143 offensive rating and a +57.9 net rating in just over 40 clutch minutes Harden has played since the trade. That has resulted in a 13-2 record in clutch-time games during that stretch.
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The Cavs have done a good job of incorporating some of Atkinson’s motion-based offense with the traditional, isolation sets that Harden is used to working with. However, at the end of games, they’ve opted to slow the game down and space the floor.
“We do some stuff and some sets, and it’s more him getting the right matchup,” Atkinson said. “We have really worked on our spacing in his iso situations or pick and roll, we have worked on that. But 99% of it is James Harden making the right play.”
The simple and effective plan has worked for the Cavs, but only because the team’s franchise player has been willing to cede control of the offense late.
“A lot of the times I feel like if you want to deny me the ball, go ahead,” Donovan Mitchell said. “This man’s done it for 17 years at the highest level, you know what I mean? And vice versa.”
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The two…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/james-harden-transformed-cavs-game-123000150.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-17 12:30:00
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