PHILADELPHIA — Jaylon Tyson wasn’t the first option.
After 76ers All-Star Tyrese Maxey tied the game with a running floater, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson calmly signaled for a timeout, met with his assistants, grabbed the mini whiteboard and drew up a play.
There were 8.1 seconds remaining. No timeouts left. Shot clock turned off. Little room for error.
With Darius Garland (right great toe soreness) and Sam Merrill (right hand sprain) in street clothes, Atkinson subbed in embattled reserve Lonzo Ball as the designated inbounder.
Donovan Mitchell, De’Andre Hunter, Evan Mobley and Tyson were the other four.
The play was designed for Mitchell. The plan was for him to shake loose with a Mobley screen, get the ball and have an opportunity to play hero. But before Cleveland broke the huddle, Atkinson quickly went through all the options on the play and delivered one final message.
“Look for Jaylon in the corner if they take Don away,” Atkinson told the players. “And J.T., if you get it, go to the rim and make a play.”
Hunter started on the left wing and immediately went to the opposite corner, just waiting, in case there was a last-second catch-and-shoot opportunity.
Mobley, the second option, was initially under the rim, in the restricted circle, before grappling with Joel Embiid for screen-setting position around the free throw line, where Mitchell was face-guarded by Kelly Oubre Jr.
Tyson, who began on the opposite wing, had just sprinted through that middle-of-the-floor traffic, trying to get his defender — Paul George — to bump into Oubre and create confusion.
Ball looked around. He could hear referee Nate Green’s countdown.
One. Two. Three. Four.
“Stay calm. Stay patient. I knew once it got to four seconds, I had to let it go,” Ball told cleveland.com. “It got to four seconds, and I didn’t feel like Don was open. Thankfully J.T. made himself available. He was right there. That was our, I don’t want to say last option, but he was the release.”
Ball — who rewatched the play a few times in the locker room afterward and believes he missed Mitchell going toward halfcourt — tossed it in, over George, on target, to Tyson in the near corner.
“Maxey took away what we wanted to do,” Atkinson said. “Zo made a hell of a pass because P.G. was right there.”
Tyson gathered the ball, turned baseline, got a step on George with one dribble, hopped off the hardwood and wrapped a mid-air pass around Embiid.
“The play broke down and told me specifically that I needed to get open,” Tyson explained. “I got it, went downhill, saw Joel Embiid waiting there and tried to give it to one of our best players underneath.”
Mobley snagged the pass, avoided VJ Edgecombe’s block from behind by mere inches and powered down a two-handed dunk that put the Cavs up by two with 4.8 seconds left.
“I was ready for the drop off or whatever happened,” Mobley explained. “Jaylon did everything right. Threw a nice pass to me. I just finished it.”
After Maxey’s last-second heave bounced off the backboard, the Cavs burst onto the court, celebrating a character-building 117-115 win — their third this season against the Sixers who could pose a threat later this spring.
“I knew they were going to try to take it out of my hands,” Mitchell said of Philadelphia’s defense. “I was expecting to get the ball and then have them come double me. Credit to them because they made the right play. But credit to Zo — our inbounder didn’t panic and found the right guy.
“Then J.T., the presence of mind for a second-year player to not go for the layup and be the hero but to make the right play to Evan Mobley because Embiid helped, that to me is just as big as anything else. He could have tried to get 40. He could’ve tried to do it on his own and let the moment be about him. But instead, he makes the right play to win us the game.
“In the biggest moment, in the biggest situation, in a crucial game, he goes out there and does that. That’s a special mindset.”
That game-winning assist, Tyson’s fourth of the night, was the perfect ending to his magnum opus.
“It’s an embodiment of him,” Mitchell said of Tyson. “He’s doing all this and yet, he is the same person. He does whatever helps the team. He has done everything that has been asked, kept a positive mindset and is eager to learn. That’s what I love about him.”
Tyson finished with a career-high 39 points on an ultra-efficient 13 of 17 from the field and 7 of 9 from 3-point range. He drained a clutch late-game triple that gave Cleveland its first lead of the second half with 1:59 remaining. He guarded Maxey, one of the NBA’s leading scorers, the entire night. Got the game ball and an impromptu ice bath — the soaked remnants of a remarkable night left in the visitor’s locker room of Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“I don’t want to make this all about me,” Tyson said. “It was a good team win.”
Before Tyson could finish that thought, Hunter interjected from the adjacent locker.
Forget the humble (expletive), man.
Tyson obliged. Sort of.
“Obviously, I did have a good game,” Tyson continued. “It was definitely something I will never forget.”
Hours ahead of the soaking, before he made a single basket, Tyson knew someone had to step up in the absence of Garland and Merrill. The Cavs entered Friday’s game expecting the physical, hounding, pesky Sixers to deploy playoff-like defensive tactics designed to take the ball out of Mitchell’s hands, forcing someone else to beat them.
Mitchell even pulled Tyson to the side at one point and made that clear.
“I need you to go back to Cal,” Mitchell told Tyson, referencing the do-everything, primary-scorer role the youngster had during his final collegiate season.
Tyson did just that.
“He told me to be California Jaylon,” Tyson explained with a bright smile. “I was like, ‘Alright, you want to see California Jaylon, I will show you California Jaylon.’”
So, what does that mean?
“Get a bucket,” he said of his alter ego. “Do a little bit of everything. Be aggressive.”
Following a featureless rookie season in which Tyson logged just 453 total minutes and sporadically went down to the G League just to get consistent game reps, he talked with Atkinson about how to earn a bigger opportunity.
Atkinson told him to take on a specific role.
Don’t try to do too much. Blend into the fabric of the team. Guard the opponent’s best player. Fight through screens. Bring nonstop energy. Pester ballhanders full court. Knock down open shots. Rebound at both ends.
All the little things that contribute to winning.
“Everybody’s path is different,” Tyson said Friday. “My path last year was to learn from really good vets on a really good team. Then just find my niche. I feel like I have found my niche on this team and I feel like I’m just playing my role. That’s really all I’m doing. I’m not doing nothing spectacular. We have really good players on this team who get paid a lot of money to do what they do, so I just play off them.”
That’s being too humble.
Tyson has become a fixture of the every-night rotation. He’s been one of the team’s best, most reliable, most impactful and most consistent two-way players. Everyone is gushing about his rapid development.
“If Jaylon Tyson is not the leader for Most Improved then I don’t know what the award is for,” Mitchell said pointedly. “This is no disrespect to past winners. I don’t know who they have been. But I feel like a lot of the past winners have been top picks and they’re expected to be that. I promise you nobody in here said Jaylon Tyson was going to have a 39-point night against the Sixers, in Philly, with no D.G. and no Sam Merrill. That’s what the award is for. It’s for guys like him where he catches everybody by surprise — in his second season.”
After Friday’s night’s outburst, Tyson is now averaging 13.4 points — one of seven Cavaliers in double figures — on 52.4% from the field and 47.5% from beyond the arc in 27.2 minutes. He is second among all qualified players in 3-point marksmanship, trailing just Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis.
There’s a reason why the Cavs chose Tyson in the first round. There’s a reason why they told him to prepare for a bigger workload in Year 2.
But no one expected this.
No one but Tyson.
“Nahhh, I’m not surprised by how I’ve played,” Tyson told cleveland.com confidently. “I can understand why people are and why they say that. I didn’t play last year. So, nobody really knew the potential I had, how I could play or how I could help this team. But in the back of my mind, I knew I could help this team and I went into this past summer preparing to play this year.
“Things have happened that opened up room for me to be able to play, and I had to take advantage of those opportunities. You don’t want to look too far down the line. Obviously, it’s still a work in progress. I still have a lot of work to do. But I think I can be an elite two-way player in this league.
“I’m built for this.”
