Cavs: J.B. Bickerstaff likely got through to Kevin Porter Jr. following ejection at Wiz

J.B. Bickerstaff’s mostly even-keeled nature and prior experience in a rebuilding situation with the Memphis Grizzlies makes him well-equipped to get through to Kevin Porter Jr. Porter was ejected in Cleveland’s game on Friday at the Washington Wizards.

It’s understandable when young players let their emotions get the best of them at times, and that was seemingly the case on Friday. Cleveland Cavaliers rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr. had an especially rough go of it in the squad’s game on Friday at the Washington Wizards, as he had three points on one-of-3 shooting, had four turnovers to just two assists, per ESPN, and was unfortunately, ejected.

Porter was tossed after hollering at the official that called him for his fifth foul with 4:31 left in the third quarter, and shortly thereafter, KPJ got back-to-back techs, sealing his fate in that one.

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Though J.B. Bickerstaff, who was in his first game as the Cavaliers head coach, tried to prevent the situation from escalating for Porter, as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor essentially noted, it was “too late.”

Now, as KJG’s Corey Casey detailed, Friday’s game at the Wizards was an encouraging one, as while it wasn’t pretty, the Cavaliers showed grit and hustled their way back in it from 16 points down at one point.

Plus, as Casey highlighted, it was nice to see Darius Garland and Collin Sexton come up huge in the fourth quarter, in which they combined for 22 points in the closing period.

At any rate, with Bickerstaff’s prior experience as a head coach in a rebuilding situation with the Memphis Grizzlies, coupled with his mostly even-keeled nature, of which Sports Illustrated‘s Sam Amico recently hit on, he’s well-equipped to get through to KPJ following this situation involving his ejection on Friday.

Bickerstaff has reportedly been working really closely with Porter, according to Fedor, and I’m sure Bickerstaff had a meaningful conversation with Porter after this last game about how to prevent this type of situation from happening again and keeping his composure and harnessing his emotion in a positive way on the floor.

Previously, Porter was suspended for a game this season for unnecessarily bumping an official, and though I don’t know for certain, considering how prior head coach John Beilein (who was reportedly recently re-assigned to an unspecified role with the team this week) didn’t connect with Cavs’ players at all, I’m not sure how that situation was handled. Furthermore, it seems reasonable to believe he didn’t get through to Porter nearly well enough.

With Bickerstaff being around the NBA for such a long time as an assistant coach, head coach of the Houston Rockets and Grizz and with his father, Bernie Bickerstaff, being a longtime NBA head coach, I’d imagine Bickerstaff, who has a great connection with the Cavs’ players, will ensure this type of thing won’t be recurring with Porter.

Hopefully we see KPJ, who had averaged 15.3 points on 62.1 percent true shooting in his last eight games coming into Friday, according to NBA.com, turn the page and rebound on Saturday at the Miami Heat.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will need a big effort from KPJ and others, as Kevin Love (Achilles soreness) will reportedly be out versus the Miami Heat, with the second game of a back-to-back also factoring into that it seems, too.

Plus, the Heat, who have been very good in this 2019-20 season and are currently the Eastern Conference’s four seed at 35-20, will be retiring legend Dwyane Wade‘s number 3 jersey, so they’ll be ready to roll. It makes that the clear majority of public bets at The Action Network have come in on the rightfully heavily-favored Heat, who will want to show out for D-Wade in a big way.