1 stud and 1 dud in Cleveland Cavaliers’ big win at Miami Heat

1 Dud: Lauri Markkanen

It was hard to find a dud in this game, since the whole team seemed to contribute, in some form or fashion, to the big win against the Heat. I settled on Lauri Markkanen because he didn’t help much in the scoring department and his three-point shooting was a bit off in the game. He played 26 minutes and only had six points on the night. He also only recorded one rebound. He finished one-for-five from the three-point line.

He was helping defensively all night though. In one example of his good defense and really a great example of how the trio of big men playing on the court is creating nightmares for other teams, he was able to tip a pass from the perimeter, snag the ball out of the air for the steal, and then hit Cavs guard Darius Garland to spark the fastbreak.

Though the defense was there last night, Markkanen still needs to add more on the offensive end. He is averaging 14.5 points this year. His six points in Miami were the lowest he scored across all 13 games he has played this season. Considering he had scored 24 points in the previous game against the Dallas Mavericks, the low output was a bit of a surprise.

I don’t imagine the big man, originally from Finland, will have too many more games like this one moving forward. He certainly doesn’t want to make this writer’s dud list in the future.