Cleveland Cavaliers: Player of the Week for May 3-9

This past week of basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers can be seen as the toughest week of the season. The Cavaliers were decimated with injuries this past week with Larry Nance Jr., Darius Garland, Isaiah Hartenstein, Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova, and Cedi Osman all missing time.

This meant that the team had to rely on players such as Damyean Dotson, Mfiondu Kabengele and Brodric Thomas to fill the voids created.

The result, considering the difficulty of the schedule, wasn’t surprising. The Cavs would go winless in four games, losing by an average of just under 25 points per game.

It’s difficult to take away positives from a week like the Cavaliers just had but one player stayed persistent through everything.

That player is Collin Sexton, who is the clear choice for the Cavs Player of the Week for May 3-9.

Collin Sexton averaged 23.8 points and 5.5 assists per game, being the only reliable shot creator and facilitator on the team during this period.

To start the week, Sexton spoke in relation to those who doubted his passing abilities and would hit on in virtual media availability about how that talk fueled him; and for more on the context involving a prior report on that, you can view that further context here.

Circling back though, Sexton stated how he was “going to go out there and show them I can do both,” via Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor; the both referring to running the team and scoring the ball.

In his first game after these remarks, he and Isaac Okoro would go toe-to-toe against the Pheonix Suns who had the best record in the NBA at that time.

In this game, Sexton would put up 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists while Okoro would put up a career-high 32 points to go along with six assists. The two would put up a valiant effort but the Cavs quickly ran out of gas in overtime, being outscored 20-4 in the extra period.

The next game would be against the Portland Trail Blazers and through the first half, the game was within reach. The second half was a different story however as it seemed like fatigue and injuries had caught up to the Wine and Gold.

They would lose this game by 36 points with Sexton being just the third-leading scorer with 15 points. Considering he had played 38 minutes the night prior and having the defense zero in on him, his stat line from this game isn’t to be looked into too deeply.

Those last two games against the Dallas Mavericks would be standard Sexton games as he would average 25.5 points and 5.5 assists through both contests. Looking more at the second Mavericks game, Sexton had a great display of scoring and facilitating. Sexton had seven assists through three-and-a-half quarters and had two entry passes at the end of the third quarter to both Love and Kabengele that led to free throws.

Sexton was able to increase his assists per game during this week while being the only consistent offensive player for the team. Defenses had the ability to take advantage of that and yet Sexton was still able to be productive and the go-to guy for this team.

That alone proves his worth to the team and should silence those critics for a good bit.

Collin Sexton has made massive strides as a player this season and has real All-Star aspirations next season. For Sexton to continue to improve and add to his game, it is up to the Cavs to surround him with more reliable pieces. If they are able to do so this offseason, watch out for the Young Bull.