Taking a look at the Cavs Player of the Week for April 5-11

The Cleveland Cavaliers finished this past week 2-2, winning their first two games on the road at the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder, while losing the following two at home against the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans.

In regards to the losses, the Raptors game was a particularly rough one, as the Cavs conceded a franchise-record 87 points in the first half, even without Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet. The Wine and Gold did make the game more respectable in the second half, though, and even cut it to 12 at one point before losing by 20.

And on the plus side, even still without Jarrett Allen (concussion) and Larry Nance Jr. (illness), and also Darius Garland (right ankle sprain) and Collin Sexton (left groin strain) on Sunday, Cleveland controlled it for much of the way before losing a close one to New Orleans. That was the second leg of a back-to-back, though, and it wouldn’t seem too serious regarding Garland and Sexton, and they were questionable in that one, but we’ll see.

So for this past week, who was the standout performer, then?

The most notable moment for this past week was Garland’s breakout with 37 points and 7 assists in the win at San Antonio.

That was a key reason DG earned the Cavs Player of the Week for April 5-11.

This was Garland’s career-high in points and easily his best game since being drafted in 2019, and he did so in only 30 minutes.

It was great to see Darius play free and loose and have the chance to showcase his offensive abilities. In the other two outings he appeared in, Garland had 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting at OKC, to go with five assists and versus Toronto, albeit in a tough L, had 19 points, though on 7-of-17 shooting. He had eight dimes in that one, however.

It’s worth mentioning Sexton had a good all-around week averaging 26.0 points and 4.7 assists per game, and even while his looks from deep as of late haven’t been going down, he’s been getting it done in other ways, as KJG’s Dylan Conatser highlighted. The two surely showed their potential together this week and helped put to bed any worries about their ability to play beside one another.

And with the presence of Kevin Love back (right calf injury complications/soreness) and the increased shooting ability of Dean Wade, who had a career-high 21 points and hit 5-of-8 from three-point land on Sunday, the two young guards have been flourishing with this extra floor spacing.

Granted, when Allen is back, which could reportedly be on Wednesday at the Charlotte Hornets, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, he’ll make his presence felt too still, and Allen and Love would make for a nice inside-out frontcourt duo.

Lastly, as an added side note, it’s been nice to see Matthew Dellavedova, who has missed most of the season because of concussion complications/then recovering from an appendectomy, make an impact as of late, too. In this past week’s games, although Garland missed the last outing, Delly had 22 assists to only four turnovers, and didn’t appear to miss a beat as a passer.

In any case, hopefully, the Cleveland Cavaliers front office notices that shooting element from Wade/Love and continues to improve it in the offseason.

For now, Garland and Sexton have been the soul of this team, and Darius showed this past week just how dangerous he can be.