1 stud and 1 dud for the Cavs in their win over the Magic
By Amadou Sow
Cavs stud: Darius Garland
With the amount of talk that Darius Garland received during the offseason, many looked at this year as his leap year. This was looked at as the year for Garland to assert himself into the conversation with other young stars and so far he’s done so.
In the win over the Magic, Garland posted a season-high 26 points to go along with 11 assists, shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three on seven attempts. This was the perfect game for Garland to get his offense back on track after a couple of inefficient shooting nights.
Exploiting the inexperience of the Magic and using Allen’s verticality as a weapon, Garland took advantage which led to indecisions by the Magic bigs. If the Magic would commit to the Allen roll, the floater was there for Garland and if they committed more to Garland, the Allen lob was there.
His ability to keep the ball on a string and “freeze” his defenders also led to a couple of highlight-worthy plays.
The biggest talk of his play yesterday should be how he was able to weather the play of the Magic during the end of the first half and into the second half. After being subbed in with 6:57 left in the second quarter, Garland would score or assist on 18 of the team’s next 30 points in a run that ultimately put the Cavs in complete control of the game.
With Sexton out for the year, Garland is the guy that the Cavs have leaned on and his play has been great to watch despite certain circumstances. An increase in minutes, shot attempts, and aggression were all going to be a given and so far, Garland has lived up to the task in some cases.
It will be interesting to see how Garland continues the season and how teams continue to scheme him considering the lack of shot creation on the roster. He is the young leader of the team and it seems as the Cavs go as he goes.