1 stud, 1 dud from Cavs thrilling win over Celtics Wednesday night

The Cleveland Cavaliers did what was expected of them to start the season, in a way. A close loss to the Toronto Raptors and wins over the Bulls, Wizards and Knicks is about right for a low-tier playoff team. Yet against a true contender like the Boston Celtics the Cavs would likely show they’re not yet at that level.

Then last Friday happened, when the Cavs saw Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert go superhuman in dropping 41 points apiece in a win over the Celtics in Boston. Impressive, exciting – but something of a fluke, right? Finally, with Boston coming to Cleveland for a rematch just five days later, the Cavs would be put in their place.

That, of course, is not what happened. The Cavs met the Celtics punch-for-punch, weathering an early 13-0 run and fighting right back to stay neck-and-neck with Boston down the stretch. Donovan Mitchell shook off a cold start to take over in the closing minutes and the Cavaliers came away with the 114-113 win in overtime for their sixth-straight victory.

The Cleveland Cavaliers hosted the Boston Celtics and beat them in overtime for the second time in a week. Let’s name a stud and a dud from the Cavs’ win.

There’s a lot from this game we could unpack, from J.B. Bickerstaff’s decision to leave Caris LeVert in the starting lineup to Evan Mobley’s athleticism to Mitchell’s closing stretch. To keep things simple, let’s highlight one stud and one dud from a rocking win in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Wednesday night.

1 stud from Cavs win over Celtics: Darius Garland

The story of the night heading into the game was Darius Garland, returning from an eye injury after missing all but 13 minutes of the season. The story of the night heading out of the game is also Garland, as he came back with a bang and led the Cavs with 29 points.

On a night when every other Cleveland player shot a combined 6-for-28 (21.4 percent) from deep, Garland became the latest Cavalier to hit at least 5 3-pointers in a game. He shot 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) as a threat both to pull-up and spacing the court to give Donovan Mitchell room to work.

Garland’s passing was also back, as he was sharp in setting up teammates and hitting the Cavs’ bigs, dishing out 12 assists including this zip to Kevin Love inside leading to the rare dunk for the veteran big:

Garland had a little bit of rust to shake off, and he was taken advantage of defensively at times, but overall he was the best Cavs player on the court, returning and immediately being up to the task against an elite foe. He chipped in five rebounds and three steals for a complete game, and the pairing of Garland and Mitchell moving forward should strike fear into opponents.

1 dud from Cavs win over Celtics: Bench wings

The Cavs have a glut of options at either end of the positional spectrum, but their most glaring weakness this season will continue to be on the wing. With Darius Garland back it was Caris LeVert continuing to get the start at the 3, and while he struggled to defend the elite forwards on the Celtics (56 combined points from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum) he had a decent enough game with 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

It was the wings behind him that struggled, something that has been a season-long trend for Isaac Okoro and a week-long one for Cedi Osman. Together they shot 0-for-3 from the field, which is a bizarrely small amount of shots; Okoro didn’t even attempt a shot from the field, finishing with an empty box score outside of a turnover and two fouls in eight minutes. It’s the continuation of a concerning start to the season for a player once thought to be a key part of the Cavs’ future.

Osman had a hot start to the year, but has gone very cold over the past week. That’s been the store for Osman, hot stretches intermixed with cold ones, and not enough positive impact otherwise to make up for the lows. He is a combined 2-for-16 over the past three games, playing a season-low 13 minutes.

The Cavs need wings they can trust, and that was not Osman or Okoro in this game. Whether it’s Dylan Windler getting healthy, Lamar Stevens getting some burn or ultimately an outside acquisition, the Cavs need more from those spots. In this game it didn’t kill them, but for a team clearly ready to content now, solving every weakness matters.