WASHINGTON — The Cavs have spent the first few weeks lamenting a tendency to lose focus and make winning harder on themselves — a bad habit that started brewing last season and played part in their playoff ouster.
But on Friday night, in the Nation’s Capital, against the hapless Wizards, that wasn’t a problem.
The Cavs extended their winning streak to three games with a 148-114 beatdown.
In a game with just two lead changes and two ties, the Cavs were in front for nearly 47 minutes, by a game-high 37 points, and never relented. Not even on their final offensive possession — a thunderous alley-oop dunk from little-used two-way player Nae’Qwan Tomlin that temporarily boosted Cleveland’s NBA Cup group play point differential, one of the tiebreakers that could determine which teams advance to the knockout round.
It was a complete game. Utter dominance. A flashback to 2024-25, when the Cavs steamrolled lesser opponents.
Here are three observations:
Finding Mobley
There wasn’t much to be upset about. The Cavs’ final point tally (148) is tied for the third-highest in a regular season game in franchise history. They had seven players in double figures — something they accomplished 11 times last season. All 13 players who entered made at least one basket. They set season-highs in points, assists, steals, rebounds, made field goals and point differential.
And yet, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson still found something to nitpick.
Evan Mobley’s usage.
“Evan is still trying to find his niche quite honestly,” Atkinson said following the romp. “I’ve got to figure out a way to get him better shots. That would be the one caveat.”
The Cavs entered this season with a detailed plan to fully unlock Mobley’s multi-dimensional offensive skillset.
More touches. Increased usage. More involvement. Inside and outside. On the ball and off. Initiating and finishing.
But in the first few weeks, while All-Star point guard Darius Garland continued to recover from offseason surgery on his toe, the Mobley usage felt forced.
There more of those possessions Friday.
“We’re intentional about getting him the ball more,” Atkinson explained. “But I feel like we can get him the ball in better positions. I think that’s part of why we’re a little behind. It will get better. But we can do better by Evan.”
Mobley finished with 18 points on 7 of 16 shooting, 0 of 4 from 3-point range and 4 of 7 from the free-throw line — two of those misses leading to the loudest roar of the night from a mostly-muted Capital One Arena crowd who had just received free Chick-fil-A as a result of those consecutive bricks.
It’s the sixth time in nine games that Mobley has shot worse than 50% from the field — a departure from the efficiency he has shown throughout his career.
Part of that is tied to Mobley’s shot profile.
More 3s. More jumpers. More ballhandling. Fewer paint touches.
In 2024-25, nearly 69% of Mobley’s shot attempts came less than 10 feet away while he had a miniscule 8.2 frequency percentage with pull-up shots.
This season, his pull-up rate has jumped to 27.9% and he is taking just 47.5% of his attempts less than 10 feet away.
Beyond that, his rate as a pick-and-roll handler has increased as well, from 9.5% a year ago to 14.5% this season. He is averaging 9.1 drives per game — up from 6.6.
And when he’s getting the ball in the post, Mobley isn’t necessarily taking advantage, scoring just 0.83 points per possession on those touches.
This is a season-long experiment.
What can and can’t Mobley do? How can he be most effective? What should be added versus subtracted? Where is he most comfortable? More ISOs or less? More post-ups or less?
Getting those answers takes time. The Mobley experiment remains a work in progress.
Glass cleaners
Rebounding has been a clear weakness this season, with Cleveland being outrebounded six times in the first nine games.
Not Friday.
It finished plus-13 on the glass and plus-nine on the offensive end — a differential that led to 30 second-chance points. The 25 offensive boards are the most the Cavs have pulled down since 2014.
“Oh wow,” Atkinson said when informed. “I was waiting for it to come. We promote it. It’s a piece of our offense. It’s not like a secondary thing. There’s a real strategy to it. I was a little perplexed why we weren’t getting more.”
Center Jarrett Allen —playing through a fractured left ring finger that is requiring him to wear a protective splint — led the charge. He corralled eight. Mobley had four. And 6-foot-1 reserve Craig Porter Jr. brought in five. In all, 10 players had at least one o-board — the kind of gang rebounding and crash-the-glass mentality that Atkinson has been preaching since training camp.
“That’s just the way the league is going,” Allen said. “You hear all around about record-high offensive rebounding numbers. For me, it’s just free will to get the offensive board.”
For the season, the Cavs rank 16th in rebounding percentage and 12th in offensive boards.
But Allen has responded from a lethargic start, tallying his second straight double-double (16 points and 14 rebounds) Friday night while earning plenty of praise from coaches and teammates for his nonstop effort.
“He’s kind of the player that swings how we play,” Atkinson said of Allen’s importance. “When he’s going really well, we’re unstoppable quite honestly. When he’s not, we’re beatable. The guys know it. What player determines our ceiling? He’s the answer.”
“When he’s at his best, we’re dominant,” Donovan Mitchell explained. “Everyone in the Core 4 so to speak has a role. I think we all do it at the highest level. He is very key to what we do, and I feel like he gets overlooked and unfairly criticized. There’s little things he does for us that don’t show up in the box score that change the game for us.”
Dazzling debut
Friday night marked a first. At least, this season.
With Garland playing his second game back following summer toe surgery and De’Andre Hunter returning from a one-game absence because of an illness, Cleveland finally had its starting five.
Garland. Mitchell. Hunter. Mobley. Allen.
It couldn’t have been a better debut — a window into the team’s still-untapped potential.
In 14 minutes with those five on the floor, the Cavs had a blistering 148.4 offensive rating, a stifling defensive rating of 93.8 and an astronomically high net rating of 54.6.
It’s one game. A tiny sample size. But ... wow.
“We’ve got too much. I always say that. But it’s a good problem to have,” Garland boasted when asked about trying to blend the five starter’s skill sets. “First time being out there this year, so it was good to get those minutes and reps. I think overall it was pretty good.”
Team decision-makers reaffirmed their commitment to the Core 4 this past offseason, shooting down any potential chatter about Garland-Mitchell-Mobley-Allen being broken up following an earlier-than-expected playoff exit.
The goal was to improve around the margins, identifying the right-fitting pieces to complement that quartet.
Hunter seems to fit — even though he managed just eight points on 2 of 9 shooting and 0 of 3 from deep.
“We didn’t really go too deep into it,” Mitchell said when asked about unleashing the starting group. “So many things we can do and build on. It’s each night just stacking and getting better.”
Better? Than Friday’s debut? What a terrifying thought for the rest of the league.
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