Friday night featured a highly anticipated matchup between Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes, the two frontrunners early on in a strong 2021 NBA Draft class for NBA Rookie of the Year. The young Cleveland Cavaliers continue to demonstrate growth in their rebuild and are showing after several difficult years they’re showing signs of maturing to take the next step, too, and Friday showed more of that.
This was an ugly game where the Cavs were down as many as 15 points in the second, and they trailed by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter to the Toronto Raptors. The Cavaliers didn’t lead until Darius Garland sunk two free throws with 4.8 seconds remaining. They still made plenty of mistakes with turnovers (18 in the game), but this is a team that isn’t ever going to quit, regardless of how much they’re down.
What sticks out most generally about this game, is the Cavs were led by two guys the team seemingly believes are two cornerstones of their rebuild in Mobley and Garland. For the game, Mobley had 18 points, five rebounds, two assists assists and a block, and he shot 7-of-14 from the field overall. In a matchup between Mobley and Barnes, the two early frontrunners for the Rookie of the Year, Mobley got the best of Barnes in the first matchup.
Now, one can’t overlook Jarrett Allen’s play, either, even though he may have flown under the radar a bit because of Mobley/Garland. Allen also added another double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds on another efficient 5-of-6 from the field; he knocked down 5-of-6 from the free throw line, too. And the Cavaliers bench also deserve a lot of credit.
Cedi Osman continued his strong start to the season, adding 17 points, while he hit 5 three-pointers in this game. Ricky Rubio also continues to be a valuable piece as a backup point guard; he added 11 points and four assists.
Anyway, here, we’ll highlight one stud and one dud from the Cavs from this W at Toronto.
We’ll begin with Cleveland’s standout from this one.