Cavs News: DG tops 1500 assists, Donovan Verdict, Kyrie trade request

After a disappointing ending to their game on Tuesday against the Miami Heat, the Cleveland Cavaliers rebounded on Thursday versus the Memphis Grizzlies.

Memphis was on the second night of a back-to-back, and Jaren Jackson Jr. was not in action. But to the Cavs’ credit, they started off well, had scoring balance with six players in double figures, and despite the Donovan Mitchell-Dillon Brooks scuffle getting its headlines, the Cavaliers controlled things throughout.

Cleveland should have been satisfied with that win on Thursday over one of the league’s best in Memphis, and hopefully, the Cavaliers can build on that.

More Cavs news

In that game versus the Grizz, Darius Garland got off to a hot start and was superb. He finished out the game with 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting and had 11 assists, thanks to a bunch early on in the game, which enabled the team to get rolling.

In the process, Garland passed the 1500-assist plateau as well for his career, and now has tallied 1509. He’s been playing great basketball for the Cavaliers for a considerable stretch, after a somewhat uneven first quarter or so of the campaign.

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Injuries didn’t help, in fairness, but Garland has been outstanding for the Wine and Gold here in 2023, and we should expect that to continue. On the year, he’s now had 368 assists, and has averaged 8.2 per game, which is tied for fifth in the NBA.

He was not selected to the 2023 All-Star Game following his first All-Star nod last season, but that doesn’t diminish how he’s been playing terrific ball, and the East is loaded. It was going to be tough sledding for him to be selected this go-round.

As for other Cavs news, pertaining to that last Memphis game in this case, the following was released on Friday evening in an announcement by the NBA.

Both players would end up being ejected after that occurred midway in the third quarter, whereas Brooks was issued a flagrant 2 and ejected and Mitchell was assessed a technical foul and ejected. Brooks would end up being suspended for one game, as he struck Mitchell in the groin in an “unsportsmanlike manner.” Mitchell was fined $20,000; he was not suspended.

That from Brooks happened after Brooks missed a layup, and seemingly instigated Mitchell then throwing the game ball at him and pushing him, and then a dust-up was initiated. After the game, Mitchell had the comments, via Chris Manning of Fear The Sword.

Brooks is a player that can be chippy at times, and to his credit, he is often effective defensively and that’s part of his role as a hard-nosed player. However, that on Mitchell from Brooks was cheap, and it was good to see Mitchell not get suspended.

NBA news

Big news for the Association on Friday came from another Kyrie Irving trade request. It was reported on Friday afternoon that Irving wants to be dealt by the league’s Feb. 9 deadline, per Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic.

Charania released more involving that report via a follow-up as well, stating that Irving/his camp declined an extension offer from Brooklyn, and these were two of the reasons for that.

Charania’s report expressed how the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks have shown interest.

Could a LeBron-Kyrie reunion be in the works? Maybe that could play out after all.

Talk about things coming full circle, huh.

Next up for the Cavs: The Cavaliers will face the Indiana Pacers on the road tomorrow at 5 PM, the first leg of a back-to-back with a game at the Washington Wizards on Monday night to follow that.