1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs in their win over the Bucks
By Amadou Sow
“The Cleveland Cavaliers have a top three record in the Eastern Conference through 31 games” is not a statement that Cavs fans expected to hear this season. With a 19-12 record, the Cavaliers are among the NBA’s upper echelon of teams, playing within a system that head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has implemented. A feel-good story, the Cavs were built through successful drafting, timely trades, and patience.
What makes their run even better is that they are doing so without Collin Sexton, their leading-scorer over the last three seasons. Once he returns from injury and assuming he is re-signed, his added scoring punch and shot-creation could bring the offense to greater heights. The play of Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen has them with legit All-Star aspirations.
Evan Mobley’s defensive prowess combined with the vertical spacing he provides has him as the frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year Award. Sprinkle in the bench play of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, and Cedi Osman, as well as the improvements from Isaac Okoro and Lauri Markkanen and you can see what has made the Cavs so good.
What’s even crazier is how young this team is and projecting that certain players reach their full potential, they can become a powerhouse team in this league.
COVID-19 has seemed to put a damper on the Cavaliers’ season with nearly half the team in protocols, though. A COVID outbreak among the team led to the Atlanta Hawks-Cleveland Cavaliers game being postponed and the club is reportedly targeting Luke Kornet and Justin Anderson via the league’s hardship exception, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
The Cavs are set to face the Boston Celtics on Wednesday and have battled adversity well this season so we’ll see how they’re able to overcome this setback.
Going into the Milwaukee Bucks game, it seemed like a game in which the Cavaliers would dominate. Going into the second game of a back-to-back with half of their team out, a win just seemed like a given considering how well the Cavs have played in the month of December.
Incredible contributions from the bench helped to solidify the win for the Cavaliers but it was Darius Garland who got the team rolling early in the first. His performance has him as the Cavs Stud of this game.