Evan Mobley said the Cavaliers’ Game 4 turnaround was less about one speech and more about the way Cleveland kept playing basketball. After the Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons 112-103 on Monday night to even the second-round series, Mobley pointed to pace, ball movement and collective discipline as the formula behind the 24-0 run that changed everything.
“I think the biggest thing is that none of us really even knew that we were just playing basketball and that’s what ended up happening,” Mobley said. “We got to continue to do that of just playing our brand of basketball, moving the ball quickly and playing as a team and finding our spots and things like that will happen just naturally.”
The Cavaliers trailed 56-52 at halftime before Donovan Mitchell detonated for 39 second-half points and tied an NBA playoff record with 43 overall. Mobley said Cleveland’s third-quarter surge came from doing the simple things faster and cleaner.
“I think moving the ball and playing fast,” Mobley said. “I think that’s been benefited us as a team very well and we got to continue that for the next game.”
Mobley played a major role in the win on both ends, finishing with 17 points, five blocked shots and three steals while helping Cleveland stay unbeaten at home in the playoffs. Kenny Atkinson called it one of Mobley’s best defensive performances, and Mobley said his job was to make the paint miserable for Detroit.
“I think I was just controlling the paint at first,” he said. “It was tough for them to get shots up, get clean looks up and then when I was in the gaps, just being active, being long, and getting as many steals as I could.”
He added that the goal was never just to fill the stat sheet. “Today I was just trying to do whatever the team needed,” Mobley said. “Whether that’s rebounding, steals, blocks, running, setting screens, stuff that’s not necessarily on the stat sheet, but things that we need to get done.”
That unglamorous work showed up again when Mobley explained how Cleveland handled Detroit’s Cade Cunningham. “Just try to get in his way,” he said. “Try to make sure that he rethinks every single pass that he’s going to take. Try to make sure that every single drive to the lane, somebody’s there to bump him.”
Mobley also credited James Harden’s playmaking, especially early in the game when he scored 11 points in the first five minutes and finished with 11 assists. “James scoring 11 in the first five minutes, how important was it for him to set the tone in scoring and how much did you guys carry that through the game? Yeah, he set the tone,” Mobley said.
The second half also brought out the best version of Mitchell, who Mobley said stayed patient until the game opened up. “First half wasn’t necessarily going his way,” Mobley said. “Second half he came with energy and kept picking his spots but saw the first few go down and from there it’s Donovan Mitchell.”
Mobley said the crowd at Rocket Arena helped fuel the surge, but he knows the next test is different. Cleveland heads to Detroit for Game 5 on Wednesday night with the series tied, and Mobley said the Cavaliers must create their own urgency away from home.
“We know we haven’t been playing the best in away games,” he said. “We got to lock in and really put emphasis on everything we do on the court.”
