For most of the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers did surprisingly well. For the past few seasons, the Cavaliers were known as a bottom-feeding team in the Eastern Conference, betting their season on lottery pick ping-pong balls, not wins and losses. Cleveland had a record of 35-23 right before the All-Star break, making them 12 games above .500. However, the Cavaliers ended the season out 44-38, only 6 games above .500. In this article, I will go through every month and highlight a few important games to show how the Cavaliers played that month.
October
The Cavaliers only had 7 games to show off in October, so the sample size is not much. The Cavaliers had two losses in a row to start off the year, then got hot and won 3 games in a row against 2021 playoff teams in the Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, and LA Clippers, each by at least more than 10 points. The next game was a loss against a then-solid Los Angeles Lakers team, where Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook were heavily involved. Evan Mobley dropped 23 points and 6 rebounds against Los Angeles that night.
November
During the month of November, the Cavaliers had another solid month, as in this month the Cavaliers went 8-6. During one of the first games in November, the Cavs were up 3 against the Portland Trail Blazers with the shot clock winding down. Jarrett Allen switches on to Damian Lillard, one of the NBA’s most clutch performers. However, Allen held his own, moving his feet fast enough to keep Damian Lillard from taking an easy shot, making him take a step-back 3-pointer that missed, making the Cavaliers win the game.
One of the next games, unfortunately, the Cavaliers hit a road bump. On Nov. 7 against the New York Knicks, Collin Sexton tore his meniscus in his left knee, forcing him to miss the entire rest of the regular season. This was a real hit for the Cavaliers, as Sexton at the time was averaging 16 points per game, to go with 3.3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists. The Cavs ended up winning the game with ease, as new Cavalier Ricky Rubio had a double-double, with 37 points, 10 assists, and also shooting 8-of-9 on 3-pointers.
From Nov. 15-Nov. 24, the Cavaliers lost 5 games in a row, with none of the 5 games ending as a single-possession game. But, Cleveland won back-to-back games after this, one of them being against a strong Dallas Mavericks team, even though Luka Doncic dropped a triple-double against the Cavs.
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.
January
During January is where Cleveland really picked it up, having an 11-4 month. The Cavaliers had a 3-game winning streak and also a 4-game winning streak in January added onto that. During one of the Cavs’ games against the Utah Jazz, Darius Garland had his first career triple-double, putting up a stat line of 11 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds, albeit in a contest without Rudy Gobert involved.
On Jan. 9, Golden State Warriors legend Klay Thompson returned to an NBA game for the first time since the 2019 NBA Finals. Fittingly, it was against the Cleveland Cavaliers, one of the Warriors’ rivals from 2015-2018. Thompson ended the game against Cleveland with 17 points, showing that he can still be a solid contributor on a championship team, but also showing some rust considering the length of his absence on the court.
The Wine and Gold had their struggles as a team in that one, though, and it was a rough showing in that loss.
During the final game of the month against the Detroit Pistons, rookies Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley showed out against each other. Mobley ended the game with 18 points and 9 rebounds, while Cunningham ended up with a triple-double, logging 19 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds, leading Detroit to a victory by 10 points.
February
During February, the NBA season mainly shifted to the All-Star break. Cleveland’s very own Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen participated in the All-Star game, and Isaac Okoro and Evan Mobley participated and won the Rising Stars Game. That was awesome with Cleveland then hosting the festivities.
During the All-Star game, Darius Garland put up 13 points and 3 assists, while Jarrett Allen put up 10 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks. Also, in the Skills Challenge, Team Cavs won it all against Team Antetokounmpo, consisting of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and Alex Antetokounmpo, and Team Rookies, consisting of players in the 2021 NBA Draft. There was first overall pick Cade Cunningham, fourth overall pick Scottie Barnes, and sixth overall pick Josh Giddey.
Also, a few days before the NBA trade deadline, Cleveland flipped their 2022 lottery-protected first-round pick and Ricky Rubio’s expiring deal for Caris LeVert, which seemed like a smart move considering Cleveland needed more scoring and seemed to be a lock for the playoffs. The Indiana Pacers are set to have Cleveland’s pick if the Cavs go on to make the postseason in 2023, from there.
LeVert’s first game as a Cavalier was against Atlanta on Feb. 15. LeVert ended the game with 9 points and 2 assists, while also shooting 33 percent from the floor. Not the best showing for a debut, but there will obviously be an adjustment period from switching teams.
March
March was a far cry from earlier in the season, having a 6-10 record that month. Two of the Cavaliers’ best players got injured this month, making it harder to win games. On March 6, Jarrett Allen fractured his middle finger, causing him to miss a significant amount of time. Near the end of the month, Evan Mobley got hurt, spraining his ankle against the Orlando Magic, causing him to miss five games as well.
There were a few positives to take out of this month, however. On March 4, in a loss against the Philadelphia 76ers, Darius Garland dropped a career-high 19 assists, which also happened to be the highest assists total, tied with Chris Paul, for the 2021-22 season. Also, on March 14, the Cavaliers won in OT against the Clippers, with Darius Garland putting up 24 points and 13 assists in 46 minutes.
The Cavs were the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference at the end of March, and they were once a top 3 seed in the East, and at this point in the season, fell into the play-in tournament. Slowly, the season was slipping out of the Cavs’ hands.
April
During April, the Cavaliers had the play-in tournament, and eventually missed out of the playoffs completely. The Cavs had 3 losses in a row, practically locking them in the play-in tournament. Losses like these showed why the Cavaliers desperately needed the interior presence of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
On April 12, the Cavaliers faced the Brooklyn Nets in the first play-in game. Unfortunately, the Cavs lost this game. The game was a good one, but the Cavaliers could not guard Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving well enough. This meant that the Nets took the 7th seed, while the Cavaliers had to face either the Hawks or Charlotte Hornets.
On April 15, the Cavaliers faced the Hawks, who had just defeated the Hornets by 29 points. During the first half of the Cavaliers’ game, the Cavs were leading by 10 points. However, during the 4th quarter, they were outscored 23-17, enough points to give the Hawks a 6-point victory, and Atlanta clearly had their in crucial stretches, led by superstar Trae Young.
Even if the Cavaliers did not make the playoffs this season, the front office and roster should definitely take this season as a success. The team was not a team praying for the best odds in the lottery, they were actually competitive during the whole season. And next year, the Cavs should have a better season, and should have an improved roster.