The Cavs put together 48 minutes of their finest basketball in the Mecca of basketball to come away with a blowout win in the Big Apple, 119-101 against the hapless, postseason-less New York Knicks. Front and center was Darius Garland, who put on a Tony Award performance along with his cast of junkyard dawgs. Let’s dive right in…
1. The Darius Garland MVP agenda heating up
It could easily be inferred that Coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s post-game comments after the Hawks loss were a thinly veiled criticism of his point guard Darius Garland. DG clearly got lost in how important he is to the team and was trying to do too much instead of lean on his teammates. In MVP fashion, DG cleaned up his mistakes and painted a Saturday matinee masterpiece with 24 points, including five threes, 13 assists, and a +29.0 net rating in 36.4 minutes. He got back to his roots, sharing the ball, bombing threes, and being a dawg on defense. There should be no hesitation on PBO Koby Altman’s part offering DG the max extension this offseason. Darius Garland is arguably a top 20 player right now in the NBA and is only 22 years old. Damn it feels good to be a Cavs fan right now.
2. A Whole Pack of Dawgs
The Cavs returned to their roots as a whole winning the assist battle (26-19) and the rebounding battle (43-35). The Cavs top 8 players in minutes all record positive net ratings, showing how locked in as a team they were.
NBA Champion Kevin Love and Lamar Stevens led the charge off the bench, both posting top 3 net ratings and the Cavs posting sub-100 defensive ratings during their minutes. Their defense was incredible, with Love drawing two charges and recording two stocks and Stevens grabbing five rebounds and two stocks.
Lauri Markkanen led all starters in net rating with a +33.5. It was clear J.B. was managing his minutes and it paid off handsomely, with Markkanen being efficient offensively and a force on the boards. Lineups with Markkanen at center were dominant, posting a +125.0 net rating in the four minutes that lineup played.
Isaac Okoro had perhaps his best offensive game of the season, with 16 points on only eight shots, two assists, and a +30.2 net rating in his minutes. The Cavs posted an insane 145.0 offensive rating in Ice’s minutes and the eye test said there’s a different confidence that he’s playing with. He could be in a for a big jump come play-in/playoff time.
Cedi “the Jedi” Osman played some great ball off the bench with 10 points on offense and a block on defense. The Cavs posted a 86.8 defensive rating with Cedi on the court, something that Cedi’s really struggled with over the course of the season. A sign of things to come? Stay tuned.
Caris LeVert may have had his best game as a Cav, putting in a complete two way performance with 16 points, six assists, six rebounds, two steals, and a plus +7.8 net rating. He spent a lot of time running point guard in non-DG minutes, and seemed to be more comfortable playing with his hands on the ball.
Moses Brown put in a heroic performance given the circumstances with 16 points, 13 rebounds double double in 30 minutes. His ability to eat so many minutes without hurting the team is nothing short of amazing, he hasn’t even been on the roster for a month! Take a bow, young Moses!
3. Playoff picture
With the win this afternoon, the Cavs have almost put a stranglehold on the 7/8 seeds for themselves after Charlotte and Brooklyn both took losses tonight. The Cavs could really use one win if not two to guarantee a 7/8 seed. It’ll be interesting to see if Philadelphia will load manage coming off of a back to back, and if J.B. has any designs on load management. It would be impossible to fault J.B. for load managing tomorrow’s game in hopes of going all out for the impending matchup on the road against the Orlando Magic, and for the rest of the season.
4. A quick note on the Knicks
The Knicks have obviously become RJ Barrett’s team in the absence of Julius Randle. Further, the Knicks are in massive trouble with Randle’s contract and performance over the course of this season. Also, it appears that Tom Thibodeau is not even in control of this team, it was rumored he hated (rightfully so) the Cam Reddish acquisition. The Knicks are a cautionary tale about paying lots of money to ball hogging offensive engines (Randle) who don’t like to play within the team construct. R.I.P. 2021-22 New York Knicks!
5. Next up,
Next up are the Philadelphia 76ers tomorrow on a back to back. Things are moving quickly to the postseason, and the Cavs have a great game under their belt to propel them to the finish, Go Cavs!
