Cavs still have things to fix, but Darius Garland’s All-Star play may be back

Goodness, in what looked to be a game where they’d cruise in the fourth quarter, and take the contest going away, the Cleveland Cavaliers again had fourth quarter issues against the Charlotte Hornets. The Cavs were up by 12 with 6:43 left, and were still up by seven with 4:09 left in the outing.

Charlotte then kept hitting big shots, and Cleveland’s offense had some trouble once again in the late-game stretch, and much of the fourth quarter, really. In that period, the Cavaliers had 23 points, shot 38.9 percent and had seven turnovers, and the Cavs even had a 105-99 lead with 28.5 seconds left.

This is still a young Cavaliers team, and they’re going through some growing pains, but Cleveland nearly collapsing late in the fourth again was tough to watch, and that period was fruitful for Charlotte in terms of converting off of turnovers. The Hornets had 35 points off of turnovers on Friday night, which was inexcusable from Cleveland. LaMelo Ball was again out for the Hornets as well, which has to be in mind here, too.

Thankfully for the Cavs, they did have some huge plays when they really needed them, and they would eventually pull out a win in double overtime, 132-122. And one of the positives was Darius Garland continuing to demonstrate he’s back in-rhythm it seems.

Garland had several answers for the Cavaliers when they desperately needed them to counter Terry Rozier and Kelly Oubre Jr. and company, and in both overtimes, Garland was on-point there.

There’s still things to iron out for the Cavs, but thankfully, Garland looks to be his star self once again.

To reiterate, the Cavaliers have stuff to clean up, as the Wine and Gold again were not able to put their opponent away in the fourth quarter, which was an issue on their recent West Coast road trip, and the offense had inconsistencies in the second half.

Some of the stagnation stems from Garland and others still getting acclimated to Donovan Mitchell’s play style, and injuries more so of late have been a factor, but the Cavaliers undoubtedly have to get better bench play, and there has to be more creativity late. And the in-bounding problems late against Charlotte were baffling.

Hopefully, Cleveland can learn from these early-season experiences.

Although, on the plus side, Garland looking to get back on track has been encouraging in this slate of games since Sunday. Of course, two of the three have resulted in losses, and Cleveland has defensive issues to iron out, especially in regards to rotations off-ball to shooters, but having Jarrett Allen back (ankle soreness, illness) is significant.

And Garland’s play, rewinding a bit, has been a positive of late for the Cavaliers. He erupted with a 51-point game versus the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, connected on 10 three-point shots in that one, and nearly brought Cleveland all the way back. Heading into the fourth quarter then, the Cavaliers were down by 20, and were without Mitchell (ankle sprain) and Allen.

Garland then had the highest-scoring quarter individually in Cavaliers history, with 27 points (per Cavs Notes), and his shot-making, and some great hustle plays from Evan Mobley, Lamar Stevens and others helped will the team back in it. The Cavs would lose 129-124, but that game may have lit a fire under Garland.

From there, he had some ups and downs, going eight-of-20 overall at the loss at the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, however, Garland did have 23 points and eight assists then.

He connected on five-of-nine from deep in that one as well, and recently, Garland has knocked in some nice movement looks, which was something I thought we could potentially see more of in games to come. There was some more of that on display from DG on Friday versus Charlotte, too.

Generally speaking, it was impressive what Garland was doing against the Hornets, anyways, as he had 16 points in the first half, had nine fourth quarter points, and in the overtime periods, he had 13 points, leading to 41 in the game overall. Garland frankly saved the Cavaliers by forcing a second OT on a big shot after an Evan Mobley offensive rebound, and from there, Cleveland would get the job done in the second OT.

Granted, several of Garland’s eight turnovers in the game were head-scratching, and he, nor Mitchell, aren’t absolved of blame for those fourth quarter giveaways, which heavily factored into the Hornets getting right back in the game. Those are things the Cavs have to clean up, in closing stretches, in particular.

But, Garland’s All-Star level shot-making looks to be back for the Cavaliers, and let’s not discount how he was still finding his rhythm, with how he was dealing with recovery from his eye injury from the season opener. Additionally, he missed an outing with a knee sprain and was coming off sickness recently during that last road trip.

Garland’s passing abilities have been the more consistent aspect of his play, too, for context, and he’s currently averaging 7.8 helpers per game, through nine games played in 2022-23. Hopefully he can clean up some areas of his game, involving unnecessary turnovers and converting on drives, to pair with the perimeter shot-making.

All things considered, though, Garland’s All-Star-level play may be back.