INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — As the Cleveland Cavaliers prepared for their Wednesday night rematch with the Milwaukee Bucks, they did so confident in the offensive production they've been able to put together over the past few games.
On a five-game win streak, the Cavs have found success from behind the arc, shooting their highest rate of threes of the season in the month of January, at the highest rate of success. That has come as the team works to play through the loss of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, adjusting their approach, as head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said on Jan. 5 following the Cavs' win over the Wizards.
“As much as I hate to say it, it’s come down to executing the analytics a little bit more,” Bickerstaff said at the start of the month. “That’s what you have to do when you’re down your [more] talented players, if you want to try and find an uptick you have to find different ways and be more efficient and we're trying to jack as many threes as we possibly can.”
In their last matchup with the Bulls, the Cavs followed that motto to a T. Cleveland put up 57 threes, making 20 of them in their 109-91 win.
Players like Jarrett Allen and Isaac Okoro, who contribute heavily on the defensive side of the ball as well, are happy to have been able to figure out a way to open up the offense.
"I feel like we're starting to figure out of this. We figuring out the quality shots that we want. We're playing great defense so we can continue to keep doing that — we have a good chance," Okoro said.
Allen said that having guys produce those high-quality shots, as well as having guys on the floor who can take those threes effectively, has allowed them to open up the rest of the floor offensively.
"It just opens up the paint a little more, having four shooters around the perimeter forces defenses to respect the shooters and not collapse as much," Allen said.
Of course, the team will continue aiming to have a strong defense, but this stretch has been about becoming stronger offensively. And while the Cavs are happy to see the offense thriving, they also see the potential to unlock even more as they embrace this new approach.
"I still think we have some ways to go on offense. I'll say that. We're sharing the ball more, we're getting more high-quality shots, but I still think we can take it to another level in terms of sometimes we're stagnant and we just let somebody iso at the beginning of the shot clock, I feel like if we go a little more in the beginning, share the ball, touch action, DHO [dribble handoff], whatever it is, then we'll be better," Allen said.
The Cavs will be able to keep up their work to execute that goal of an uptempo, energized offense while working to remain strong defensively in their tough matchup with the Bucks on Wednesday night inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.
