12 stats to explain Cavs 130-123 loss to Hawks

The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t able to overcome their poor transition defense as they dropped Friday’s game to the Atlanta Hawks 130-123.

Here are the four factors from this game. These numbers are from Cleaning the Glass.

Effective Field Goal Percentage

Offensive Rebounding Percentage

Offensive Turnover Percentage

Free Throw Rate

Cavs

55.9%, 63rd percentile

30%, 55th percentile

16%, 40th percentile

19.1, 34th percentile

Hawks

61.5%, 86th percentile

22.9%, 20th percentile

13%, 74th percentile

19.8, 38th percentile

Now, let’s dive into some of the stats.

• Atlanta outscored Cleveland 36-17 in fastbreak points. Head coach Kenny Atkinson pointed to this as being the determining factor in the game, and rightly so. You simply can’t get beaten that badly in one particular category and expect to win. This isn’t the first time this has happened, as the Cavs have had issues with other teams that play fast, such as the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, and the Indiana Pacers from last playoffs.

• 26.9% of the Hawks’ offensive possessions started in transition (99th percentile). Transition baskets are one of the most effective ways to score. And if you get that many possessions in transition, you’re going to have a great offensive outing.

• The Hawks had an offensive rating of 134.5 in transition. This isn’t remarkable in terms of an offensive rating for transition plays (59th percentile). But again, it’s the fact that they were able to get out and run so often that made this such a problem for the Cavs.

• Atlanta outscored Cleveland 25-13 on points off turnovers. Some of these numbers are also reflected in the fast-break points mentioned earlier. If you’re a team that doesn’t get back in transition, you have to hold on to the ball. The Cavs didn’t do that as they turned it over 17 times. Darius Garland and Lonzo Ball coughed it up five times each, while Donovan Mitchell registered four turnovers. You simply can’t have your three best ball handlers giving it up that often.

• The Hawks also executed well in the half-court as they registered a 106.1 half-court offensive rating (77th percentile). An inability to get to the free-throw line and convert (18-36, 69.2%) kept this from being a truly elite offensive showing. The Hawks registered a 120.4 offensive rating (70th percentile) on the evening.

• Mitchell was once again fantastic as he notched his second 40-point game of the season. He’s having the highest scoring season of his career (30.6 points) and his highest efficiency (60.4 effective field-goal percentage). Mitchell is truly playing some of the best basketball of his career.

• Mitchell went 7-15 from beyond the arc. This included going 3-9 on pull-up threes (two of these attempts were in the 45 seconds when the game was over, so it makes the numbers look worse than they were through the first 47 minutes). Being able to create your own outside attempts off-the-dribble makes you so deadly as a scorer. How exactly are you supposed to defend these?

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• Mitchell used the outside shot to go 7-9 in the paint. He’s always been able to get to the rim — as he did in Atlanta, going 5-7 in the restricted area — but adding the floater has made him an almost unguardable three-level scorer in a way he hasn’t been before.

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• Lonzo Ball was held to under four points for the seventh time this season when playing 20 or more minutes. He registered just three on Friday as he went 1-4 from the field, all of which were threes. He’s getting to the rim on just 10% of his shot attempts this season (11th percentile). This has added up to him having the third-worst effective field-goal percentage (42.3%) for the 48 players Cleaning the Glass labels as combo guards. That’s not ideal.

• Jarrett Allen attempted just six field-goal attempts in 28 minutes. This is the fourth time he’s taken this many or fewer in a game this season. The Cavs need to do a better job of getting Allen involved. This has been a recurring issue all season.

• The Cavs had their second-best outside shooting game of the season, going 17-39 from three (43.6%). This was the second game they’ve lost when they’ve connected on over 40% of their threes, as they’re now 6-2 in such contests.

• Cleveland went 5-14 on second-chance shot attempts. Even though they won the offensive rebounding battle 14-6, they registered just one more second-chance point. Not being able to convert defeats the purpose of crashing the offensive glass when it gives way to poor transition defense like this.