On Friday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers survived the Charlotte Hornets’ 35-point 4th quarter comeback to secure the victory in double overtime with a final score of 132-122. The Cavaliers had a lot of excellent performances so I have no choice but to cheat and select multiple studs.
This presents the challenge of ousting the bad apple and to be fair I also selected multiple duds. Let’s get to the studs.
Cavs studs: Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell
The starters had to do a lot of the heavy lifting as the bench could not do much. This group answered the call and stuffed the stat sheet so well I couldn’t pick just one.
Jarrett Allen: 20 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks
This was Allen’s first game back following a string of absences due to an ankle injury and he showed zero signs of rust. To be fair, Charlotte’s center situation is probably the worst in the entire league so it was easy pickings for Allen.
Darius Garland: 41 points, 6 assists and 5 steals
Garland was terrific Friday night, proving he was still hot after dropping the first 50-point game in the entire league for this season against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He showed his clutch gene by hitting a huge three to tie the game up to force double overtime. His only negative was 8 brutal turnovers, but the positives outweigh the negatives.
Evan Mobley: 21 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks
This might have been the best game of his young career as he just absolutely stuffed the stat sheet in this one. Similar to Allen’s excellent game you can chalk this up to bad big men from the Hornets.
Donovan Mitchell: 34 points and 6 assists
Mitchell dropped 34 and he probably had the weakest performance out of these four. Let that sink in. The issue is it is way too early in the season for these guys to be playing this much. The bench needs to step up.
Cavs duds: Caris LeVert, Kevin Love and Isaac Okoro
The bench unit looked bad all around, accounting for only 13 of the points which placed the load heavily on the starters. Caris LeVert was the biggest letdown, playing 30 minutes and going 1-of-8 from the floor with little else to contribute. The confusing part was he played all of the second overtime playing over Lamar Stevens.
Kevin Love looked timid hitting two of his four 3-pointers to go with seven rebounds. Isaac Okoro was another disappointment recording only three points in 16 minutes along with nothing else.
From there, Cedi Osman only played seven minutes and nobody else came in for the Cavaliers. Mitchell played 43 minutes, Mobley and Allen both played 45 minutes and Garland played 48 minutes. Obviously, with the two overtimes, these minutes are a bit inflated but two overtimes against Charlotte is a bit concerning.
I wouldn’t read too deep into it though as the Cavs just didn’t close properly in the fourth quarter.