This Cavs player could be the key to their game vs Celtics on Thursday

On Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be concluding their four-game road trip, with a game at the Boston Celtics. Cleveland has gone 1-2 thus far on this trip, with a win on Friday at the Miami Heat, and losses at the Orlando Magic on Monday and Celtics on Tuesday.

In Cleveland's last contest at Boston, the club they'll be playing again on Thursday, the Cavaliers did play pretty well for much of the game. The Wine and Gold connected on 19 three-point shots, and would go on to shoot 42.2 percent from beyond the arc, and they had 27 assists to 12 turnovers.

To the Celtics' credit, though, they created plenty of open looks from three themselves, resulting in them knocking in 18 triples, and a combination of deep balls and their downhill play led to Boston landing the victory. At this juncture, the Celtics are the NBA's only team that's yet to drop a game on their home floor.

While the Cavs will have their work cut out for them, as all teams essentially do going up against such a talented Celtics offense and group, if the Cavaliers can get quality contributions from their bench leader, in Caris LeVert, it could really make a difference.

Caris LeVert could be the key to the Cavs landing a W at the Cs on Thursday.

LeVert came back from a four-game absence on Tuesday, and it wasn't the most memorable game from him. LeVert finished out with 11 points and three assists, to two turnovers, in 23 minutes.

Given there was likely to be some rust, the end results from LeVert were decent, but the vast majority of his scoring came in the fourth quarter, and he wasn't able to get it rolling much prior to that. This next time around, perhaps he can give the Cavaliers more energy throughout, and maybe take some more pressure off of the likes of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell.

To reiterate, it's fair to assume LeVert could be getting back into the swing of things a bit, as he's recently dealt with knee soreness, the same injury that has recently sidelined Evan Mobley. But if LeVert can be more in-rhythm on Thursday, and get a few quick looks to go down earlier on, that could definitely pay off for him finding his footing and to help spark the Cavaliers off the bench.

Throughout much of early-season play, LeVert has often set the tone for the Cleveland bench. And in a matchup against one of the league’s top offenses, if LeVert can have more success getting downhill to get to his spots, generate free throws and potentially open up looks for shooters and cutters, that’d be huge for in Cleveland, also with Mobley out again.

LeVert has had 14.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game this season, and his driving, pull-up feel and playmaking is something this Cavs team had been missing of late. LeVert has placed in the 89th percentile in assist rate among wings this season, per Cleaning The Glass, and when he's penetrating and dishing as a counter to his paint scoring, it's big for Cleveland off the bench. Plus, his pesky defense on the perimeter and multiple-effort off-ball plays on that end can help ignite the Cavaliers.

Generally, the Wine and Gold need to play with a sense of urgency for four quarters at the Celtics on Thursday, and even more so at The Garden; there can't be several runs for the Cs.

If LeVert ignites this team earlier on in the game, though, and the Cavaliers can adjust some things to run the Cs' role guys off the three-point line, the Cavs should have a good chance here. Anyway, keep an eye on Caris to get himself going again in games ahead, hopefully as he re-establishes his rhythm.