5 insane stats from Cavs statement win over Celtics

Cavs forced Celtics to adapt to them

The Cavaliers were criticized, then lauded, when they started their three-big lineup to start last season. Playing three seven-footers was a major departure from the trend of modern basketball, where teams sought to get smaller and smaller to maximize offense. Even with the departure of Lauri Markkanen this summer in the Donovan Mitchell trade, the Cavs are still a “big” team with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen starting together in the frontcourt.

That trend has spread around the NBA, with the Boston Celtics embracing it en route to an NBA FInals berth and the Minnesota Timberwolves unloading a bundle of draft picks this summer to add Rudy Gobert alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, and Markannen’s new team is starting him at the 3 again.

Yet the Celtics are without Robert Williams III to start the year, and their big depth behind Al Horford is thin indeed. Their best configurations clearly involve either stretch-4 Grant Williams playing at power forward, or putting Jayson Tatum at the 4 and getting Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon onto the court.

Those realities are why reserve center Luke Kornet logged only 11 total minutes in two games leading into Friday’s contest, with a pair of DNPs to his name. He is not one of the Celtics best players and hasn’t earned a rotation spot. Against the Cavs, however, he logged a whopping 26 minutes.

The Cavaliers forced the Celtics to match their size, which was clearly advantage: Cleveland. In the overtime period Celtics coach Joe Mazulla trotted Kornet out there instead of White or Brogdon, and the Cavs throttled Boston because of it. The Cavs’ guards attacked Kornet in space, and the bigs crushed him on the boards anyway.

Moving forward, this is a weapon for the Cavs. They will force teams used to playing smaller to go big to match up, and then punish them for it. That was true on Friday night, and it will be true moving forward.