Why Evan Mobley's Three-Point Shot May Be Key To Cavs Postseason Run

If the Cavaliers hope to advance deep into the playoffs they need Evan Mobley to keep doing what he did in Game 1 against the Magic.

Apr 20, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) shoots beside / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Four minutes. That's how long it took Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley to knock down his first three in Cleveland's 97-83 Game 1 win over Orlando on Saturday. He followed it up with another one a little over 30 seconds later.

Forget the fact that after Cleveland started the game a perfect five-for-five from three, then went on to miss their next 18 long-range shots, before Darius Garland stopped the drought on the first bucket of the fourth quarter. Those two Mobley threes set the tone early in a game the Wine and Gold led wire-to-wire.

Mobley's ability to knock down threes has been a spark for the Cavs throughout the back half of the season. It wasn't really something he was asked to do early on during the 2023-24 campaign. However, after returning from a knee injury in late January it became a point of emphasis to utilize Mobley as a floor spacer and encourage him to take more of those shots. He obliged to the beat of a three-point percentage of 37.3% for the season.

Very small sample size obviously, but since the start of the calendar year, the #Cavs are 5-1 (including Saturday's win over Magic) in games where Evan Mobley knocks down at least two threes.

Over the same span the Cleveland is 8-8 in games where he attempts 2+ threes.

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It's not the largest of sample sizes. Following his return to the floor, Mobley only attempted two or more threes 16 times. In those games the Cavaliers were a perfectly average 8-8 during the regular season. The key though is when Mobley made multiple threes, a circumstance that produced a 4-1 record for Cleveland this season. Make that 5-1 if you add in his two-for-four performance against Orlando in Game 1.

Again, the sample size is extremely small, and more data is probably needed before we can make any major statements about Mobley's impact from long-distance. Still, the results have been there for the Wine and Gold so far.

If Mobley can be a consistent threat from outside, the Cavaliers are well suited to not only advance past Orlando in the first round, but potentially make some noise beyond it.