Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley’s hot hand switched on at just the right moment for the Cavs to seal a 110-102 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday. The Cavs success ran through the second-year big, who scored a critical 11 points in the fourth quarter to seal a needed win against the Thunder, center Jarrett Allen said in a postgame interview.
“You know the famous saying, my favorite one: ‘Feed the local big man,'” Jarrett Allen told Bally Sports Ohio. “That’s what (Evan Mobley and I) always do every night. We try to make sure we find each other in the post and on drop-offs.
“If we do, we can really get each other going.”
Evan Mobley combined with Allen for 42 points and 23 rebounds in guard Donovan Mitchell’s absence, providing a much-needed interior presence against 7-foot forward Aleksej Pokusevski and 6-foot-8-inch Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. Mobley’s aggression when attacking the basket made him a near-unstoppable force when Thunder forwards Darius Bazley and Jalen Williams switched onto him, using his size and strength to find his way to the basket and score high-percentage shots when his team needed it the most.
“Just attack the rim relentlessly,” Allen said. “On the offensive end, nobody can stop (Evan Mobley). One play, he took the ball coast-to-coast. That’s just what he does. When he gets going, he’s hard to stop.”
If both Allen and Mobley, who played a statement game against the Philadelphia 76ers in early December, play the unselfish brand of basketball head coach J.B. Bickerstaff preached early in the season, the Cavaliers can run with the best in the Eastern Conference and beyond, said Allen.
“We know if we play our game, we’re able to beat anybody,” Allen said. “If we play it to almost perfection, we can go out there and score however many points we want.
“We didn’t do that tonight, but we held our own.”