The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ season is streaking along as they picked up another symbolic win, this one against the Miami Heat, a team the Cavs hadn’t beaten down in Miami in 11 years. 20 straight contests down in South Beach resulted in Cleveland losses. The current Cavs players were mostly still in elementary school at that time. That’s pretty fun to this writer, who was also a former elementary school teacher back in the day.
Cleveland dominated Miami and won convincingly 111-85. The Cavs now stand at 12-10 on the young season and this year is certainly starting to feel much different than the previous three. The addition of rookie sensation and 7-foot big man Evan Mobley has made a huge difference to this team’s opportunities moving forward. You now add in free-agent signee 7-footer Lauri Markkanen with the Cavs’ other big man Jarrett Allen and this team is giving opponents nightmares on a daily basis with this trio of big fellas.
The Cavs have excellent bigs who have helped them to a great start to the season and a big win in Miami. 1 stud, 1 dud from a record-breaking victory.
In this game with the Heat, the Cavs ran out early and led 61-43 at the break. Allen had 13 points at that point and yet Evan Mobley had zero points. However, Mobley already had four blocks at the half and was altering his opponents’ decisions all the time with his defense both inside and outside at the three-point arc. The blocks by Mobley helped Cleveland get to 14 of them by the end of the game. That team stat is now 11th all-time in Cleveland history for one game. The record is 21, which was set back in 1992. I get a sneaky suspicion that that record may soon fall with this trio of talent protecting their basketball rim.
There were several outstanding performances on the night by many Wine and Gold players. With such a lopsided victory it was difficult to find any subpar performances. Let’s look back at a historic night in Miami, and some of those outstanding outputs by this very confident team.
1 Stud: Kevin Love
The oldest player on the Cavs team came to play in Miami. Kevin Love was brilliant in this game, coming off the bench and in only 21 minutes of play pouring in 22 points. Really, it was the first half, where Love was deadly with his shooting. He went five-for-six from behind the arc, along with pulling down four rebounds and dishing out three assists. The 17 first-half points in only 12 minutes of play were really impressive and helped the young Cavs build on their early lead.
With a renewed pep in his step, Love was playing outstanding defense as well. He was tipping passes or cutting in front of his opponent to grab the steal. He even got in on the team’s block party and recorded one himself. This young group of Cavs players seems to have Love buying into the hype and he certainly seems very happy in his new role this year. It’s good to see, as Love has had his battles over the years with that image of effort when he’s playing. He’s earning a nice $31.3 million this year, so it’s always well received when he’s contributing.
There were other outstanding games by Love’s teammates, including Jarrett Allen’s 12th double-double on the season, finishing with 19 points, 11 rebounds and a studly five blocks. Evan Mobley didn’t score in the first half but dropped 17 points in the second half to go with his four blocks. The rookie is having a season for the record books and has helped create this dominating interior trio core of big men. The most impressive thing about his game continues to be how quickly he learns new skills. His shot is improving with each game and his defense and quickness to go from baseline to the top of the key are so amazing to watch at this stage of his career.
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.