1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs in unfortunate loss to Nets on Friday

Cavs stud at the Nets: Darius Garland

The clear stud for this contest to me was Darius Garland. He’s always going to be the straw that stirs the Cavs’ drink, and while he’s often started games more balanced, his shot-making, mixed with quality ball-swings, helped get Cleveland back in it.

Admittedly, Garland seemingly was gassed in the fourth quarter, to an extent, and honestly, I can’t blame him for that, but for the vast majority of this contest, he was outstanding in a huge game in the scoring and shot-making sense.

On the night, he finished with 31 points on 12-of-24 shooting, including going 3-of-6 from three-point land. He went 4-of-4 from the free throw line; it did seem that he could’ve had more free throw attempts, frankly; either way, Garland did his part for Cleveland here. That’s nothing new.

Now, Garland had only three assists in this contest, to two turnovers, and there were some forced shots, but it’s not as if there weren’t quality feeds from him that could’ve led to makes for others, clearly. And Garland’s play gave the Cavaliers a spark to get right back into things, and was one of the reasons for the Cavs taking the lead near the end of the third.

From there, I can’t discount Evan Mobley’s play, though. In his return, he had 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, and he most notably had three assists, two blocks and two steals.

Overall, I thought he looked sharp, for the most part, after his absence, and that was a great sign from this contest, regarding the play-in tournament to come, and for Cleveland’s regular season finale versus the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.