Coming into their game on Saturday at the New York Knicks, it was difficult to know what to expect for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland had anything but an encouraging last back-to-back versus the Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday and Thursday, and the team was set to play its third game in four days following Thursday’s blowout L to Atlanta.
It’s been understandable, frankly, given how injuries have taken their toll, and the team defensively having been without Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley of late and Dean Wade hasn’t helped. The Mavs and Hawks had their way in the past two games, and as games have progressed, it’s been difficult for the Cavaliers to have stretches of quality play for four quarters in recent weeks, overall.
The Cavs heading into this last Knicks game did have an opportunity to get somewhat back on track, though, and they had a great effort in this last one.
The Cavaliers and Knicks went back and forth for much of the first half, and while the Knicks are eliminated from postseason play, they’re a tough-minded squad that have had injuries themselves, and it was going to be a close game, I’d have thought.
Oddly, Julius Randle not being in this last one might’ve actually been better for the Knicks, too, heading in, with how this season has been for him, and his antics of late haven’t helped things. Derrick Rose being out for an extended period, of course, hasn’t helped New York, either, and they’ve been up-and-down with Alec Burks manning the lead guard duties since Kemba Walker hasn’t been essentially active with the team since February.
Anyway, for the Cavs, they had quality efforts in this contest at the Knicks, and the team was able to get a much-needed W to help generate some confidence.
With that in mind, we’ll get into our stud and dud for Cleveland in this last convincing 119-101 win here.
The Cavs had a few potential candidates for the stud at the Knicks, but one player was the clear standout. The dud wasn’t that way, conversely.
As is customary, we’ll start with the Cavaliers stud from this win over the Knicks on Saturday afternoon.
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.
Cavs dud: Brandon Goodwin
By design, we have to hand out a dud for the Cavaliers in these, when it be for the team, or a player, and this go-round, I’m going with Brandon Goodwin for that designation.
Goodwin, on a number of occasions, has done quality work as a two-way contributor for the Cavaliers filling in some for Darius Garland, but at times, as is going to be the case for primarily bench guys, he didn’t have it this go-round.
Goodwin only had 10 minutes of playing time, and I’m not going to crush the dude, honestly, and him not being available for the postseason, with his deal not being converted to a standard contract, is still a bit odd to me. The recently-converted RJ Nembhard’s shot creation potential, and if Rajon Rondo can get healthy for a postseason run, conversely, is the other side of the coin, however, so I guess I do get that.
Anyhow, in this Knicks game, Goodwin didn’t seem to be able to make much of an impact or have much going, albeit in his brief time out there. In his 10 minutes, he was 1-of-2 shooting for two points, and had a steal, but seemed to be in compromising possessions a few times and had a turnover.
Objectively, on offense, he didn’t appear to be getting to his spots to create productive ball-swings, and the ball unfortunately was not hopping as we have seen in other instances with him in there. That sort of thing was likely why Goodwin was a minus-8 in his 10 minutes.
I’m not going to read too much into this from him, still. For two-way guys, you have to expect some rough outings. And Goodwin has had his share of solid games.
For the Cavaliers, this one was a quality game to build on, but Sunday night will be a tough one again. Joel Embiid, James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers are next up for Cleveland, with both teams on the tail end of a back-to-back. Maybe the Cavs can steal one and avoid a regular season sweep from Philly; even that is difficult to forecast, still.