6 Takeaways from Cavs dominant Game 3 win over Heat: This is why you trade for De’Andre Hunter
Cleveland’s top-end talent showed through again.
The Miami Heat finished with 37 regular-season wins. The Cleveland Cavaliers grabbed their 37th win at the end of January. That talent disparity was on display in Game 3, even though the Cavs were missing one of their three All-Stars in Darius Garland.
Game 3s are supposed to be competitive, even if the team coming home is down 0-2. We’ve seen that all weekend with both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics. It doesn’t matter the talent discrepancy. These games are difficult.
That didn’t happen here. The Cavs went out and stepped on Miami’s throats after surrendering a 12-4 run to start the game. They regained control with an 18-0 run, and then kept applying pressure until they squeezed the life out of Miami’s playoff hopes with a 124-87 victory.
Jarrett Allen shows how good he is when he’s aggressively attacking
Allen only had nine shot attempts in Game 3. That isn’t a lot or even much more than his season-long average of 7.8. It did, however, feel like a lot because of how forceful he was in these attempts.
Allen pulled Cleveland through their uneven start. He scored their first six points by forcefully attacking the basket. That carried over to the other end, where he was a difference maker guarding Bam Adebayo. Adebayo led Miami in points (22), but also turned it over six times compared to one assist. Allen was part of the reason why.
It’s easy for Allen to take a backseat in an offense featuring three All-Stars. In fact, it’s even the ideal shot distribution. You would just like to see him be a bit more aggressive in how he attacks when he gets his looks. The Cavs shouldn’t need to be down one of their stars to get a performance like this from Allen.
Defense changed the game
Cleveland won this game on the defensive end. Their 18-0 run in the first quarter was due to their defense continually forcing turnovers. Miami coughed it up four times in that stretch. The Cavs scored on the ensuing possession each time that happened.
The defense was great all afternoon, but that four-minute run is what made this game as one-sided as it ended up being.
Even though the Cavs have been winning with their offense this season, they still have the personnel to completely suffocate teams when they need to.
This is why winning the possession battle is so important
Head coach Kenny Atkinson has been preparing his team for the playoffs since training camp. The changes they’ve made to their offensive and defensive philosophies were with the postseason in mind.
Once those principles were firmly established, he turned his attention to winning the possession battle. It’s something he’s talked about needing to win for months.
“Day one, I wasn’t like, ‘Man, we’re gonna win the possession game,’” Atkinson said back in mid-February. “Now, as we start playing these more elite teams and start getting to the playoffs and where the plane feels a little more even. Possessions become more and more important because your margin is smaller. So that’s just one example of how we’ve shifted our mindset ... Let’s win the turnover battle. Let’s win the rebounding battle.
Despite Atkinson’s best efforts, the Cavs haven’t excelled in that area. Miami tied Cleveland in points off turnovers and second-chance points in Game 1. The Heat won both of those areas in Game 2 by a combined nine points. That was part of the reason why they were able to make it a two-point game in the fourth quarter.
Game 3 showed how good this Cavs team can be when they actually win these areas. They had 10 more points off turnovers and 12 more second-chance points. That 22-point advantage contributed to Game 3 being a blowout.
Max Strus shows that he’s a complete player
The Cavs needed additional ballhandlers in Garland’s absence. Fortunately for Cleveland, Strus stepped up. He provided five assists and was instrumental in getting both Allen and Evan Mobley consistently involved in the offense. This was much needed in a game that Mitchell struggled in.
It’s easy to see Strus as just a three-point shooter due to the volume and difficulty of his attempts. However, his high motor, playmaking ability, ball handling, and defensive versatility are why he’s such an integral part of this team.
Sam Merrill might not be the best starting option if Garland remains injured
The Cavs struggled at the start of both halves. Some of that is due to their starters not coalescing well together.
The Game 3 starting lineup of Mitchell, Merrill, Strus, Mobley, and Allen only played one possession together in the regular season. It very much looked like that on Saturday afternoon.
Out of the 22 lineups that played in Game 3, they were one of just two that didn’t win their minutes. The Cavs were outscored by six in the 11 minutes they played. Cleveland went just 5-24 from the field (20.8%) with that lineup.
Merrill’s inclusion in place of Garland didn’t work in Game 3. The starters didn’t have a particularly well-rounded skill set and also weren’t overpowering in one aspect, like spacing or defense.
If you want to keep De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome on the bench, which it seems like Atkinson wants to do, Cleveland may be better served with starting a jumbo lineup with a jumbo frontcourt with Dean Wade. That would at least give them a defensive and rebounding identity to fall back on.
This is why you trade for De’Andre Hunter
Cleveland’s bench was phenomenal all game. Jerome was fantastic as he provided a career-high 11 assists. But Huner was the star of the show.
Hunter, at his best, looks like one of the top wings in the league. Few players can combine his size, shooting, three-level scoring, ball handling, and defensive versatility. All of which were on display as he thoroughly carved up Miami’s defense en route to 21 points on just eight shot attempts.
He looked like the exact player Koby Altman described in his press conference after the trade.
Consistency has and likely will always be the issue with Hunter. We’ve seen that already in this series as he was scoreless in Game 1 and, although he provided 12 points in Game 2, he wasn’t impactful defensively or as a rebounder. The boom-or-bust nature of his game makes it difficult to consistently rely on him on a nightly basis.
Fortunately for the Cavaliers, he isn’t someone who desperately needs to play well for you to win. He’s likely Cleveland’s fifth most important player. The outcome every night isn’t dependent on Hunter’s play.
Similar to Jerome, in the proper role and hierarchy, Hunter is an incredible asset. He has the top-end skill to single-handedly win games or turn afternoons like this into a blowout. That’s not something many teams can receive from their fifth-best player.