It wasn’t pretty, and even more so considering who they were playing in the Oklahoma City Thunder, and given the circumstances, was likely the Cleveland Cavaliers’ sloppiest game of the year. What difference a year makes.
The Cavs are at a point where moral victories just aren’t important anymore. The best thing you can say about this game on Saturday night is they got a win, and in the end, that’s all that matters. It certainly felt like the Cavaliers played down to their competition, though.
What the win means is the Wine and Gold improve to 28-19 and are able to stay at the #5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, Cleveland suffered more bad luck in this game on the injury front as Lauri Markkanen left after 13 minutes in what looked to be a rough ankle sprain. Per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, X-rays were negative, but it was a high ankle sprain; we’ll find out more after further tests.
Markkanen is one of the key acquisitions that now-Cavs President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman made in the offseason and is a big part of what the Cavaliers do. It also looked like he was finding his stroke from deep again before the injury, and has been on-point in recent weeks.
Circling back, this again was a really sloppy game that the Cavaliers really had to gut out. For a moment it looked like the Cavs would pull away and turn this into a blowout as they went up by 17 in the fourth quarter. The Thunder were able to cut it to 10 at the end of the fourth and as little as 6 with a little over 5 minutes left. The game was a lot closer than it should’ve been and some of it was the Cavaliers playing down to their competition.
After the game, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff wasn’t very happy with his teams’ effort and the way they played, based on how he seemed in media availability. That’s understandable, considering missed free throws and turnovers were what gave the Thunder a fighting chance in the fourth.
The Cavs shot 18-of-35 from the free throw line (51.4 percent) and had 22 turnovers in this game, which the Thunder turned into 17 points. So, it was understandable why Bickerstaff was unhappy with his team.
With that said, here is one stud and one dud from the Cavs 94-87 win versus the Thunder.
Cavs stud: Darius Garland
This game wasn’t perfect for Darius Garland, as, like most of the team, he was sloppy with the ball (he had 8 turnovers), but he still continutes to build a strong resume why he should be in the All-Star Game in Cleveland next month.
For the game, he had another double-double with 23 points and 11 assists, while shooting 1-of-4 from three and 9-of-20 overall from the field. I tend to think you don’t want to put too much into plus-minus from singular games, but for what it’s worth, Garland led the team with a plus-23 mark in that realm.
In clutch time, when the Cavs absolutely needed to make a couple of shots, he was able to do that and put enough distance between them and the Thunder. Again Garland continues to make a very strong case and quite frankly, should be an All-Star.
The Cavaliers just aren’t a competitive, feel-good story anymore; they’re good even with all the injuries they’ve had. Nobody expected the Cavs to be here at this point and Garland’s couple of leaps are one of the big reasons why. He has them as a top 5 seed in the East.
For the season he’s averaging just below 20 points per outing with 19.8 points, and is averaging 8.1 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals, while shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 36.4 from three. Since November (36 games), Garland is averaging 20.7 points, 8.1 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals a game.
Garland hasn’t just taken the next step, he’s taken a couple of steps and continues to get better. On tap of that, winning matters and he’s a crucial reason as to why the Cavaliers are a top 5 seed in the East. All of that should factor into to his first All-Star appearance in Cleveland next month.
Cavs dud: Kevin Love
Kevin Love has really excelled in his bench role this year, but this was an off game for him, much like most of the team. For the game in 23 minutes he had 6 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, while shooting 0-of-3 from three, 1-of-4 from the field and surprisingly missed 3 free throws.
In fairness most of the Cavaliers team really struggled from the free throw line and left a lot of points there. Again Love has thrived as a veteran off the bench this year and is one of the reasons why the Cavs are a surprising 5th seed in the East in his own right, too.
For the season, Love is averaging 13.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists, while shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 39.7 from three. This is coming off a December in which he was on fire, averaging 17.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists, while shooting 49.1 from three and 49.1 percent from the field overall.
As we alluded to, Love has been a big part of the Cavs success and has gone from talked about as a mentioned trade piece, to a valuable piece on this team Cleveland likely wants to keep around it seems.
This was certainly one of Kevin Love’s off games this year against OKC, though. He could never get in any real rhythm on Saturday night, and you typically don’t see him miss free throws, as he’s one of the most reliable free throw shooters.
Love has cooled off a bit since his red-hot December, although I’d link some of that to the Ricky Rubio injury and Garland missing games earlier. I’d bet he’ll pick up closer to where he left off in December when Rajon Rondo gets back and he’s playing with more veteran ball handlers.
Up next the Cavs will try to get to 10 games over the .500 mark as they host the New York Knicks on Monday.