Cavs: One stud and one dud from loss against Suns on Saturday

Cavs stud: The second unit

The Cavs starters initially were very sharp in this game and they even had a 14-point lead in the middle of the second quarter against a title contending West team. Again after pushing the lead up to 14 points that’s the best that it got for the Cavs. The Suns came storming back and were up 24 points at one point in the middle of the third quarter, as we noted.

This is a game where it looked like the Suns could’ve and looked like they were going to go up around 26-30 points going into the fourth, while Phoenix’s starters hypothetically rested the entire fourth quarter.

The Cavaliers second unit did a really nice job fighting back, though. Unfortunately, they didn’t cut it to single digits until the very end of the game. When the Suns went up by 24 points, it looked like the game was over, but credit to the second unit for cutting it to 13 points going into the fourth and making this interesting.

They were even able to cut it to 11 points with over eight minutes remaining (plenty of time). Now, they weren’t able to come all the way back but in a game like this the second unit was the bright spot for the game. It certainly appeared Bickerstaff was trying to send a message to the starters as he essentially for the most part let these guys play the entire second half and they certainly earned it.

The Cavs were able to get 54 points from their bench. Cedi Osman led the bench and all players with 20 points for the game. Kevin Love was the other notable player that had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. All in all, it was a solid showing from the bench on a night with very few bright spots.