Cavaliers dud: Darius Garland
I don’t have a ton of conviction with this latest dud for the Wine and Gold, but I’ll go with Garland here.
It’s again seemingly somewhat harsh to have him as Cleveland’s dud from Friday night, as Garland didn’t assert himself too much, and that was fine, early on. Mitchell had it rolling, and the Cavs as a group seemed to be moving the ball well for much of the contest, even despite some shots not falling from quality looks having been generated.
And to that point, Garland himself did still get the group engaged it appeared, and it was fine for the Cavs to play at times through Mobley, to some extent, and Love in his minutes.
But, when watching the contest, it did seem as if Garland was in other stretches pressing just a bit, and while he’s a lethal shooter off-the-bounce, and a player of his caliber is going to inherently self create in sequences, he just looked a tad off for much of his shots.
Now, to reiterate, it wasn’t a bad performance, and Garland made some key plays down the stretch, and he had only one turnover. Still, some of the looks were forced and unnecessary it seemed like, based on how Cleveland was controlling things.
However, with his shot-making abilities, playmaking feel and his handle, it’s tough to grill him too much after this one. Garland had been on quite a tear of late as a deep shooter, too, and most importantly, he did appear to be fine after that elbow to the face late in the contest.
By and large for the Wine and Gold, Friday night’s game was a solid performance, anyways. Next up, the Cavaliers will take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening, after which Cleveland will have three home games next week.