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.
Cavs stud: Darius Garland
One could’ve campaigned for rookie sensation Evan Mobley, but I had to go with Garland here for a number of reasons.
Yes, Garland got off to a slow start with only four points in the first half, but when it counted, Garland was able to deliver. He had 21 points, eight assists and a steal, while shooting 8-of-12 from the field and 2-of-3 from three-point range. Garland got off to a slow start, but he got it going in the second half, scoring 17 points, as we noted, and 12 of his points came in the fourth quarter, and he sank two clutch free throws to win the game.
This is coming off a game where Garland was very impressive, having a 19-point, 10-assist double-double in a matchup against superstar Damian Lillard. Now, Garland has star potential, but I’m not ready to anoint him quite yet.
Many, including reportedly 15 NBA executives, believed this would be a breakout year for Garland and when you watch a game like this, you can see why. It was nice to see Garland take control and be ultra-aggressive in the second half, but especially in the fourth quarter.
I’m again not ready to anoint Garland yet, however, Garland has star potential and if he can consistently have this type of aggressiveness, the sky is the limit for him.
Cavs dud: Collin Sexton
This is one of the toughest games for Collin Sexton that I’ve seen since the Cavs drafted him eighth overall in 2018.
For the game, he had nine points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal, but Sexton only shot 1-of-5 from deep and struggled overall from the field, only shooting 4-of-17. Again this is one of the toughest games he’s had as a Cavalier, in my opinion. He was sloppy with the ball, he struggled to find a rhythm and was playing out of control at times.
The biggest issue was at the end of the game, where he also inexcusably committed two near-turnovers that could’ve cost them the contest. At the end of the day it ultimately didn’t cost the Cavs as they were able to pull out a tough win on the road at the end. Even still, this was one of Sexton’s worst games as a Cavalier, but to Sexton’s credit, he did atone for it a bit, by winning a crucial jump ball against Gary Trent Jr.
Other than that, it was one of the off nights for Sexton. Some of it could be Sexton is still adjusting to a new role, to some degree. He’s obviously is in a new role, primarily much more so off-ball, also with Rubio in the fold, and it’s apparent, and he’s going through the ups and downs of it.
In any case, this was an important win for the Cavaliers on the young 2021-22 season. This was more than just a highly anticipated matchup with the two early season frontrunners for Rookie of the Year in Mobley and Barnes.
The Raptors are a good team who factor to be in contention for the play-in. To have a comeback win like this in a tough building against a good team is an important building block.
The Cavs were 8-7 at one point at the beginning of last season, but some of it was based off a so-so schdule. And when the Cavs went on a Western road trip, the losses piled up and the bottom fell out.
Conversely, this time around, they’ve started 6-4 and gone against some really good, contending teams on the road, they’ve been beating. It’s early, but this time around it feels different.