1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs in convincing win over Knicks on Saturday

Cavs stud: Ball movement, unselfishness

The Cavaliers had a very satisfying performance on Saturday afternoon, and really needed this one to help themselves regarding play-in positioning, in which they’re still seventh in the Eastern Conference currently.

Cleveland had a big-time game from Darius Garland, yet again, with 24 points on 8-of-19 shooting, including going 5-of-9 from three. The shot-making from him was unreal here, but the playmaking from Garland, and the Cavs as a team, like when they’ve been at their best this season, were spraying the ball around and playing extra pass basketball.

Garland, who just broke the Cavs record for assists in a calendar month in March, had 13 assists at New York on Saturday. He was feeding the likes of Moses Brown and Isaac Okoro inside, and hitting perimeter threats for catch-and-shoots, such as Caris LeVert and Kevin Love, among others.

The Cavaliers as a team hit 15 three-point looks on 34 attempts, a scorching 44.1 percent clip, and the group playing unselfish ball led to plenty of knockdown opportunities, and as the game progressed, allowed the team to gain separation.

Regarding the others besides Garland, LeVert again looked to be more comfortable, and had 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting, and went 3-of-7 from three. Brown had a nice fill-in start again, having 16 points on interior looks and had 13 rebounds, and I thought was very active defensively.

Isaac Okoro also had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, and was really cutting well, and made some multiple effort plays to keep possessions alive.

Love had 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, with him going 3-of-7 from three, and he tacked on five rebounds, also, and Cedi Osman with increased play again was only 2-of-6 from three and 2-of-6 overall, but he had three assists, and was 4-of-5 on free throws. Love and Osman had 5 and 4 fouls in 27 and 19 minutes, however, those were typically smart fouls, and Love himself drew two charges in this one, an area where he’s made an impact this season in his move to a bench supersub role.

Generally, the Cavaliers I thought were really effective here with their ball and man movement, as LeVert had six assists himself, too, for example, and others were making sensible extra passes, leading to even more open looks.

And Cleveland’s unselfishness in that way, and multiple effort plays keeping possessions alive and defensively helping and making things tough on the Knicks, particularly in the second half, got the job done. New York had 34 free throw attempts, but some of those were by design from Cleveland on Mitchell Robinson, and the Cavs conceding 41 second half points was from more attention to detail it seemed.

The Cavaliers were getting things hopping and making some big shots leading to a 39-point first quarter to start things off, and then kept playing the right way, while turning it over just nine times.