Kenny Atkinson overthought his starting lineup.
The Cleveland Cavaliers started their 21st different starting lineup against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday. This grouping was more perplexing than any of the previous 20. That group’s ineffectiveness led to the 131-122 loss.
Minnesota has one of the biggest starting forward groups in the league with Rudy Gobert (7’1”), Julius Randle (6’9”), and Jaden McDaniels (6’9”). To counter this, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson decided to start Craig Porter Jr. (6’1”) alongside the core four with Dean Wade (knee) out of the lineup.
The results were disastrous. That starting unit was outscored by nine at the start of the first quarter in just under five minutes of action. Their inability to provide any resistance defensively led to Minnesota making its first seven shots.
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The idea behind starting Porter was to get some semblance of normalcy to their reserve units. The Cavs have continually lost games this season, with some of their deeper bench lineups that play in the second quarter. They came into this game with the worst point differential in second quarters.
The lineup change helped from that perspective. The Cavs played some of their best basketball of the season from the middle of the first quarter through the end of the half. Cleveland won the final 19 minutes of the first half by 13 points, as they were continually able to send out multiple lineup combinations that had a wide array of skills, with De’Andre Hunter, Sam Merrill, and Jaylon Tyson all playing prominent roles in that good stretch.
This led to the Cavs taking a four-point advantage into the break.
Despite their lack of success in the first half, Atkinson went with the same group in the second. This time, the starting five was outscored by 10 points in four and a half minutes, which included the Timberwolves scoring nine unanswered points to open the third.
Minnesota used this strong start to carry them through the rest of the quarter. They won the frame by 21 points.
To their credit, the Cavaliers had an impressive response in the fourth quarter. They trimmed to lead to four with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, but weren’t able to overcome the 17-point hole they dug themselves with the disastrous third quarter.
In total, the starters were outscored by 19 points in the nine and a half minutes they shared the floor. The Cavs won the other 38 and a half minutes by 10. It’s nearly impossible to win games when you spot the other team nine points at the start of each half.
Donovan Mitchell had a strong showing in the loss. He led the team with 30 points on 10-20 shooting to go along with eight assists and seven rebounds.
Evan Mobley contributed 19 points on 8-11 shooting with four rebounds. Darius Garland added 16 points on 7-16 shooting to go along with eight assists.
The Timberwolves were led by 28 points from Julius Randle. Anthony Edwards finished with 25 points on 10-20 shooting.
The Cavaliers showed stretches of what the best version of this team looks like. They were able to effectively turn defense into offense for extended runs and had Minnesota on its back foot because of it.
However, their lack of lineup combinations for the nine and 10-man rotations they want to run has continually come back to bite them. It did so again, only it was the starting unit that was bad this go around. It seems like this will be an issue with this team until they’re either fully healthy or make a trade for more playable bench players.
These two teams will meet again in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon. We’ll see if Atkinson has learned his lesson with this starting group then.
Category: General Sports
