Evan Mobley can dominate, J.B. Bickerstaff said on eve of career night
Editor’s note: This story was written on the eve of Evan Mobley scoring a career-high 38 points Saturday in the Cavaliers’ 114-102 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
CLEVELAND — Evan Mobley possesses the talent to seize control of any given game for the Cavaliers.
However, the 21-year-old forward is still chasing consistency in the infancy of his NBA career.
The Cavs’ embarrassing 120-114 loss Friday night to the shorthanded Golden State Warriors provided a snapshot of Mobley’s ongoing quest in his second professional season.
Mobley is not the reason the Cavs suffered their 12th consecutive regular-season defeat to the Warriors, who last fell in the series on Dec. 25, 2016, when Cleveland prevailed 109-108 at home.
Instead, a team-wide collapse unfolded, with the Cavs (28-19) overlooking the defending NBA champion Warriors while they rested top players Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins.
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The Cavs were without star Donovan Mitchell (strained groin) and Ricky Rubio (management of an ACL recovery), yet there were no legitimate excuses for allowing the Warriors to build a 20-point lead with 4:18 remaining in the third quarter. The Cavs rallied late but couldn’t fully compensate for their defensive letdowns. They failed to adequately close out on the perimeter, and the Warriors (23-23) finished 23 of 43 (53.5%) on 3-pointers.
Did the Cavs allow the absence of big-name Warriors players to sap them of a sense of urgency?
“We try to treat the game like every other game and come out with the same intensity,” Mobley said, “and I don’t think we did that tonight.”
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff provided an even more blunt assessment.
“We didn’t respect the game. It was that simple,” Bickerstaff said. “They’ve got champions over there, and we thought some of those guys were out, so we were going to take it lightly, and we got what we deserved.
“They’re good basketball players, and if you’re going to disrespect them, they’re going to make you pay. And we came out of the gate soft and disrespectful, and they were out there shooting warmup shots with no contest, no challenges, nobody in their space, and they gave us what we deserved.”
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Unlocking Evan Mobley’s full potential remains work in progress
As Mobley advances in his development, the Cavs believe he can become a go-to offensive threat. They could have used a boost somewhere, anywhere, as their worst loss of the season unfolded at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Mobley finished with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, including 0-of-2 on 3-pointers, and added seven rebounds, a blocked shot and an assist in 37 minutes.
“There’s a version of Evan that is going to dominate this league,” Bickerstaff said. “We’ve seen it, I think, consistently in defensive moments, but there’s an offensive version of that as well, and I think it’s coming.”
The Cavs would not decline a sampling of it Saturday night at home against the Milwaukee Bucks (29-16).
“You’ve just got to move on to the next [game] and learn as much you can and keep going forward,” said Mobley, who’s averaging 14.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and shooting 55.7% from the field this season.
Friday’s dud aside, Mobley has played a huge part in the Cavs’ defensive success. The Cavs are ranked second in the NBA in defensive rating (109.7) and have allowed the fewest points per game (107.4) and third-fewest points in the paint a game (45.7).
“Defensively, he’s really impressive — his ability to guard multiple spots,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Improved understanding and court vision has allowed Mobley to communicate more with teammates on the defensive end of the floor compared with last season. He has tracked the ball and contested shots better, too. He had been tied for sixth in contested shots per game (11) and tied for first in contested 3-pointers a game (3.9) heading into the matchup with Kerr’s men.
In Wednesday night’s 115-114 road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Mobley had two blocked shots in the final quarter, prompting Bickerstaff to reference his “fourth-quarter Ev” nickname.
“You go to the Utah fourth quarter [Dec. 19 and] Wednesday night’s fourth quarter — he’s dominated those games from a defensive standpoint,” Bickerstaff said. “I think you’ve seen more of that.