The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the biggest surprises in the NBA this season, undoubtedly. Despite the injuries they’ve had, and the schedule to this point, Cleveland has held tough in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference, in which they’re in the fourth seed at 32-21.
Objectively though, them being without recently-named All-Star lead guard Darius Garland of late because of back soreness has really hurt the club; he’s missed Cleveland’s last three games, and they’ve lost two of three. Even with Garland, still, they had issues following a strong start, and then the club had a rough fourth quarter at the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, which was such a bad 115-105 loss.
Cleveland narrowly beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the second half of a back-to-back on Monday, but that one was a struggle, to say the least, and then the Cavaliers lost to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday by double digits.
Following that up, heading into it, the Cavs had another game on the slate without their young star point guard in Garland, and I expected the Cavs to potentially lose once again. This time they were at the Charlotte Hornets and their high-octane, uptempo offense.
It is evident that the club badly misses Garland when he’s not been able to go, and the back soreness is somewhat concerning, frankly, and Cleveland not having Lauri Markkanen back yet because of an ankle sprain hasn’t helped in recent contests. He is reportedly progressing, on a positive note.
But either way, it’s understandable why the Cavaliers are reportedly seeking backcourt/wing help via trade, with their injuries.
Anyhow, in regards to this last Charlotte game, even with the rough stretches for Cleveland at times and a tough first quarter, the Cavs rebounded after that 31-22 first quarter in favor of the Hornets, and largely controlled things for extended stretches from there. That played into them getting the job done narrowly.
The Wine and Gold had several notable contributors here, and quality ball movement and attention to detail defensively in the second and third quarter, on the other end, paid off. Among the key contributors were Brandon Goodwin, who had 12 points and a career-best nine assists, and I thought was uber-active as a rotator defensively; he had four steals, too.
He had five turnovers, sure, and a bad miss near the end of regulation, but he gave the team a much-needed spark in the second quarter, and they fed off that. In his play for Cleveland, the guy continues to impress as a two-way contributor, and even more so after he previously was dealing with complications involved with a minor respiratory condition that ended his past season with the Atlanta Hawks.
As far as others, Kevin Love was humongous off the bench, as he had 25 points, and connected on 6-of-14 from three. His nine rebounds were very meaningful, too, and it was not shocking that he was a Cavs game-high plus-12.
Additionally, Isaac Okoro’s defense I thought made a difference in making LaMelo Ball work for everything, and his secondary playmaking was solid. And Dean Wade’s defensive positioning and eight points gave the team a lift.
Okay, so from here, we’ll hit on the Cavs stud and dud from this gutsy win at the Hornets then.
We’ll start with the top performer for Cleveland first.