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Kendra Andrews, ESPN
CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley stood just outside the 3-point line and shadowed Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner as he fought through a screen. Once Mobley was the primary defender, Wagner trudged his way downhill toward the basket.
With five seconds left in the game and the Cavs up by two, Wagner went up with his right hand to lay it in. With Mobley’s left hand, he tipped the ball away, all but securing Cleveland the win and the 3-2 edge in the series as it heads back to Orlando.
“It was a big play,” Mobley said. “The game was on the line. I just went for it. I knew he was going to go for the layup. So went for it, got a clean block and we got the rebound, so got us to win. I’m just trying to make game-winning plays and winning plays as much as possible, especially on the stretch. And I feel like I did a good job this game.”
With Jarrett Allen out with a right rib contusion, the Cavs were also without his 13.8 rebounds per game, and his crucial interior defense. Cavaliers coach JB Bickerstaff was unsure if Allen’s injury would cause him to miss any more games and the Cleveland big man is being considered day-to-day.
Preaching their typical “by committee” approach, Cleveland wasn’t expecting just one player to pick up all of Allen’s slack. However, there was an understanding that Mobley would have to front a lot of the load.
“It was going to come down to the trenches,” Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff said. “It was going to come down to who was going to be able to get a stop in the moment. Evan was phenomenal defensively — challenging the ball, containing shots, forcing missed shots and rebounding.”
The Magic shot just 1-of-6 on Mobley in the first half. He finished the game with 14 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and two blocks — including the one that won Cleveland the game.
Multiple members of the Cavaliers — Bickerstaff, Mobley and Darius Garland — all said they knew Wagner was going to try and finish his shot in the final seconds with his left hand. It’s what he’s done time and time again in this series to great success. What makes Wagner difficult to guard is his size, combined with his footwork and shiftiness.
But this time, Mobley wasn’t going to allow that move to work.
“Just when you think you have [Mobley] beat, he’s right back there,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I told him in the locker room, it’s the same thing he did to me before I got traded here in Utah. We were in a close game. I’m driving to the basket, I’m like, ‘all right, I got a layup.’ And next thing you know here he comes out of nowhere.
“I was able to tell him, ‘yo, you don’t understand how unique that is.’ I’ve seen it with Rudy Gobert as well. But for him to be able to guard on the perimeter like that and then chase you down and get the switch and then chase you down and go block that, that’s next level. So it was great to see that out of him. That’s who he is. And we’ll need it again.”
While Cleveland was prepared to win the game in the trenches — the saw way both their other wins have occurred this series — they wanted to have a concerted effort to generate more offense, particularly 3-point shooting.
Mitchell finished with 28 points, but the first half was carried by Garland, who scored 17 of his 23 points in the first quarter.
“Shoot. Shoot. Shoot,” Mitchell said of what his message was to Garland. “I don’t give a damn. Shoot the ball. At the end of the day, go out swinging and there’s a different spark we get when he’s like that. You see it. I’ve set the tones in Games 1 and 2, but there’s a different spark too when he’s also continuing to go … He’s a guy that’s [an] All-Star level player, caliber player, and he’s just — shoot the ball, be you, be aggressive. And that’s what you see tonight.”
Max Strus, who hasn’t shot particularly well this series, finished with 16 points and hit four 3-pointers. Marcus Morris was inserted into the rotation and got 12 points off the bench.
It was Cleveland’s most balanced attack of the series so far. It was also the first game this series that didn’t end in a blowout and late-game execution was crucial.
Having this kind of game — responding to Orlando’s runs, having to play in crunch time and seeing a group effort lead to a win — gives the Cavs confidence as they had back to Orlando for Game 6.
“The biggest thing is just the effort we had tonight,” Mitchell said. “Understanding that those shots we hit, those runs we make, there’s no loudness, there’s nothing coming for us [Friday]. We got to stick together as a group. And I think going down there and knowing what’s to come, knowing who they are down there as a team, we got to be locked in. We got to stay together. And I have no doubt we will.”
Source: www.espn.com