King James Gospel
Fansided

Dissecting the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2021-22 season

By Quinn Minnich

Cleveland Cavaliers big Evan Mobley greets teammates before a game. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Cleveland Cavaliers big Evan Mobley greets teammates before a game. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
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Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ricky Rubio (#3) is helped off the floor by teammates. (Photo by Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports) /

December

During the month of December, the Cavaliers went 9-6. Cleveland had a couple of strong wins in this month, beating a Miami Heat team by double digits, the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks handily as well, and the Chicago Bulls by 23 points.

What was probably the best game of the Cavaliers, and also one of the best Cavaliers’ games in a long time, was against the Toronto Raptors on December 26. 6 of the Cavaliers ended with 15+ points, in Dean Wade, Kevin Love, Darius Garland, Lauri Markkanen, Denzel Valentine, and Ricky Rubio. The Cavaliers ended up winning the game 144-99.

Now, in those wins we touched on, those opponents were riddled by COVID-19-related issues, though, but the Cavs did still have a number of impressive wins even as the month progressed.

During this month, Kevin Love also showed why he deserved some love (see what I did there?) for Sixth Man of the Year. During that span, Love averaged 17.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game in December.

Sadly, more unfortunate events occurred at the end of this month. During arguably his best season, Ricky Rubio tore his ACL against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Cavaliers ended up losing this game 108-104. During this time, injuries started piling up. Darius Garland missed some time occasionally, and Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio were now out for the season. Plus, some health and safety protocols hit the team from time to time.