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Did the refs have money riding on the Cavs-Timberwolves game?

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No.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that neither Scott Foster, Natalie Sago nor Danielle Scott had money riding on Friday night’s Cavs-Timberwolves game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

You can say what you want about the quality of the officiating in this game – it seems like a lot of folks on both sides had some issues with it. Rudy Gobert certainly did.

Gobert didn’t like when the refs whistled him for landing an elbow on Jarrett Allen’s face as they jockeyed for position in the low post. And he #letemknow by doing a cute impression of Johnny Manziel on draft day, suggesting that there was a connection between legalized sports gambling and the referees making the correct call with 27.8 seconds left in regulation. (I know, Rudy, it’s always a flop.)

To be fair, sports betting has been legal in the Buckeye State since Jan. 1, 2023, thanks to the passage of House Bill 29. In fact, since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that prohibited sports gambling in 2018, some 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports betting in some form, according to Forbes.

And for all you conspiracy theorists out there, according to the National Basketball Referees Association, Sago’s favorite TV show is “I (Almost) Got Away With It.” That’s an admission of guilt if there ever was one. (Her favorite movie: “Home Alone.”)

And we all know about Tim Donaghy. Maybe Gobert just finished watching the Netflix special (“Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul”). Or maybe Gobert knows something we don’t know.

Here’s what we do know: Gobert and the Timberwolves were playing the second night of a back-to-back, without one of their stars. The T-Wolves were spent, and Jarrett Allen was getting under his skin. We also know that Gobert is a blowhard who believes every foul call on him is an egregious flop.

After the game, Gobert doubled-down on his assertion that sports betting is “hurting our game,” according to a CBS Sports article. However, he’s not as big of an idiot as I thought, as he admitted “it wasn’t the time for me to react that way.”

“I should have not done that,” Gobert told reporters. “I cost my team the game, and obviously, they couldn’t wait to give me a tech. That was bad. That was an immature reaction.”

Case closed.

Darius Garland 2

‘He’s just getting comfortable’: Darius Garland is looking more like himself

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Darius Garland’s first game back after fracturing his jaw was Jan. 31 against the Pistons. Up until the last few games, though, it hasn’t felt like Garland has been back.

Considering how smoothly the offense flowed when Donovan Mitchell was running the point in Garland’s six-week absence, his role on the team going forward has been the subject of much debate.

Adding fuel to the fire, Garland just hasn’t looked like himself since returning.

At his best, Garland is a quick, crafty, elusive slasher who can create his own shot and score on demand. Garland is a perimeter threat as well, and he hit 41% of his 3-point attempts last season (a career high). Complementing his scoring capabilities, Garland is a gifted passer, and has been among the league leaders in assists for the past two seasons (he ranked seventh in the NBA last year and sixth in 2021-2022).

Since coming back from a broken jaw that he suffered in a collision with Kristaps Porzingis on Dec. 14, Garland has struggled to find a rhythm. In his first game back, on Jan. 31, Garland score 19 points in 20 minutes. The next night in Memphis, he had nine points in 24 minutes, although he dished out seven assists.

In a Feb. 7 win at Washington, Garland had 13 points and four assists in 28 minutes.

Garland has looked tentative, especially when driving to the basket. That’s completely understandable in my view. I can’t imagine a more painful or frustrating sports injury than a fractured jaw. I’d be a little gun-shy too. But to make matters worse, his perimeter shots haven’t been falling either.

Fortunately, it seems like the fifth-year guard is starting to turn a corner.

In the Cavaliers’ double-overtime loss in Chicago on Feb. 28, Garland was 7-of-14 from 3-point range in a 23-point performance. And that was just a warmup for Friday’s game in Detroit.

Against the Pistons, Garland hit eight 3-pointers and led the Cavs to a 110-100 win without Mitchell in the lineup. Garland finished with a game-high 29 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists.

Garland is a 38.5% career 3-point shooter. When his shot is falling – he was a scorching 8-of-12 from 3-point range in Detroit – it puts defenders in a bind.

“It makes people have to chase him and make tough decisions,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters after the March 1 win in Detroit. “Now you have to decide if you want to trap him, if you want to switch, and then all that does is create advantages for us in other places. And he’s such a willing passer, if you trap him he’ll get off of it and now we’re playing 4-on-3 advantage basketball. So we love it, we love to see him be aggressive and get as many 3’s up as he can.”

Bickerstaff had a good perspective on Garland’s progress since returning from the jaw injury, and the unique challenges of having your jaw wired shut for a few weeks.

“He’s just getting comfortable, that’s one of the things,” Bickerstaff said. “In the middle of a season to just completely have to pause – and remember, he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t lift a weight, he couldn’t touch a basketball. And then he had to work his way back, and you gotta kind of ramp yourself back up.”

For Garland, it was almost like being in training camp again.

“But again, we don’t have time to stop, and he’s just been going game after game,” Bickerstaff added. ” … And I think what you’re seeing now is his confidence is growing, his teammates continue to feed in his success, and he continues to help them. So he’s Darius, and he’s who we expected him to be.”

As the Cavaliers grind through a grueling post-All-Star-break schedule, the real return of Darius Garland should be a welcome sight for Cavs fans.

Toronto Raptors

Cavs Roll with Satisfying Rout of Raptors in Toronto

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Scotiabank Arena has been a house of horrors for the Cavs over the past few seasons.

Prior to Saturday night’s game, the Raptors had won 10 of the past 11 meetings with the Cavs on Toronto’s home court. That included a 124-121 win on New Year’s Day – the first of only two losses for the Cavaliers in 2024 so far. Perhaps more memorable to Cavs fans was the Raptors’ 108-105 opening-night victory in 2022, during which Darius Garland suffered a left-eye injury that cost him several games.

Over the past two or three seasons, the Raptors have been a tough matchup for this iteration of the Cavs. The Raptors have good size and “length” (as they say in the popular parlance), and they seemed to outmuscle the Cavs at times in recent matchups.

That wasn’t the case on Saturday.

The current rendition of the Toronto Raptors is a mashup of the Raptors, Knicks and Jazz, and the organization seems to be in a weird limbo – “purgatory” might be the better word ­– of trying to rebuild and reload at the same time. They’re building around Scottie Barnes, who has a ton of upside, but their starting lineup isn’t terrible.

That said, the current rendition of the Cleveland Cavaliers is really good. And they take care of business against sub-.500 teams.

The Cavs’ 119-95 win in Toronto was just as non-competitive as the score indicates. They led 67-47 at halftime and warmed the heart of J.B. Bickerstaff with a season-high 21 assists on 27 shots in the first half.

The Cavs just kept pouring it on in the second half.

The Cavs’ frontcourt flexed its muscles against a disjointed Raptors squad that was playing its second night of a back-to-back. Jarrett Allen had 18 points and 15 rebounds, his 24th double-double of the season. Evan Mobley had 17 points and 11 boards in 27 minutes.

All five Cavaliers starters scored in double figures, and three reserves – Georges Niang, Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro – did as well.

Considering that Toronto had won four straight against the Cavs – and they now employ the likes of Kelly Olynyk and former Knicks R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley – this one gets honorable mention as one of the most satisfying wins of the 2023-2024 season. And I just don’t like the Raptors.

Defense Travels Well

Heading into the All-Star break, we have a pretty good sample size of data to feed into the Cavaliers’ formula for success. This particular data point is pretty compelling: The Cavs are 11-0 when holding opponents to 100 points or less this season.

Cleveland held Toronto to 40% shooting and 9-of-31 from 3-point range.

“I think our guys have completely bought into the idea of what they’re capable of defensively, and understand how important that is for our success,” Bickerstaff told reporters after the game. “And they take pride in it. It’s something they feed off and they want to do. They get upset when guys score on them. They get upset when they give up offensive rebounds or blow an assignment.

“I just want our guys to believe in it the way that they do, and understand, we can turn it up a notch even more, and keep getting better at it, understanding our system more, keep working together on our communication, all those things. But we just want opponents to feel us. We want to be a heavyweight on their shoulders every night.”

Cavs Kings

Cavs Cruise to Win Over Kings, Leapfrog Bucks in Eastern Conference

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“The game of the night in the NBA is right here in downtown Cleveland,” Bally Sports play-by-play man John Michael declared prior to tipoff of the Cavaliers’ Feb. 5 matchup with the surging Sacramento Kings.

Heading into the game, the Kings had won six of their last seven, and were 5-1 on a seven-game roadtrip that concluded at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Meanwhile, the Cavs had won 13 of their last 14 games and 18 of their last 22 games, and were riding an eight-game home winning streak.

The first quarter seemed to portend a Monday-night shootout.

There were 14 first-quarter lead changes. The Cavs were 8 of 12 from 3-point range in the first period, while the Kings hit six 3-pointers. The Cavs led 39-34 after the first.

From that point on, it was clear that the Kings lacked the necessary firepower to hang with the Wine & Gold. That’s saying a lot, considering Sacramento had the top-ranked offense in the NBA last season, and the highest offensive rating in the history of the NBA.

The Cavs took a 74-59 lead at halftime, on the shoulders of Donovan Mitchell’s 19 first-half points. Max Strus chipped in nine points in the first half – all coming from 3-pointers.

The 74-point explosion was the Cavaliers’ highest first-half scoring output of the 2023-2024 season. At the break, the Cavs already had made 13 of 22 3-point attempts.

The onslaught continued in the second half.

Strus canned three more triples, finishing with 22 points and five rebounds. He was a scorching 6 of 10 from 3-point range.

The Kings cut the Cavs’ lead to 10 early in the fourth quarter. But the Cavs responded by reloading. With 10:07 left in the game, Evan Mobley overpowered a double-team in the paint to make it 108-96 Cavs. After the Cavaliers got a defensive stop, Dean Wade canned a 3-pointer on the next Cavs possession to make it 111-96.

The second of back-to-back triples from Caris LeVert made it 117-101 with 8:17 left to play.

Mitchell finished with a game-high 29 points.

Caris LeVert turned in another strong performance off the Cavaliers’ bench. The gluten-free LeVert had 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists.

Jarrett Allen had 19 points on a George Gervin-like 8 of 10 from the field. Evan Mobley finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds in his fourth game back from knee surgery.

Ultimately, the Cavaliers had seven players in double figures, including 11 each from Darius Garland and Isaac Okoro.

“When you get that many guys in double figures, that means the ball is moving at a rapid pace,” Austin Carr said on the Bally Sports telecast.

The Cavs were a torrid 23 of 41 from 3-point range. It was their 16th straight game with 12 or more 3-pointers – a franchise record.

The Cavaliers seem to be taking a huge step forward as a title contender. They’ve been handling their business against sub-.500 teams throughout the season. But lately, they’ve been getting the job done against some of the top teams in league, notching quality wins over Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Kings in recent weeks.

“I’m starting to feel a calmness about this team that I didn’t feel last year at this time,” Carr remarked. “They were jittery last year. Now this team plays with a confidence and a calmness that I didn’t see last season.”

With the 136-110 win over Sacramento, the Cavaliers vaulted into the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference standings on a percentage basis.

Jarrett Allen

Jarrett Allen Narrowly Misses 17th Straight Double-Double

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They say all good things must come to an end, but this one almost didn’t.

One night after Jarrett Allen set a franchise record with his 16th consecutive double-double, Allen appeared to notch his 17th straight dub-dub in the first half of the Cavaliers’ Feb. 1 matchup at Memphis. Allen went into the locker room with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

However, at the beginning of the third quarter, it was announced that the NBA had taken away one of those rebounds from Allen’s stat line.

Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com reported that the Cavs contacted the NBA for an explanation.

“Even though the courtside statistician inside Memphis’ FedEx Forum awarded Allen with a rebound at the 5:02 mark of the second quarter, the stats crew in Secaucus, NJ, determined that Allen did not establish firm control of the board following Jaren Jackson Jr.’s top-of-the-key 3-point attempt,” Fedor wrote.

Unfortunately, Allen didn’t get much of a chance to officially haul in rebound No. 10.

With 9:33 left in the third quarter, Allen fell awkwardly after colliding with the Grizzlies forward Vince Williams Jr. Allen checked out of the game at the next timeout, and it was reported that he suffered a left-ankle injury on the play.

While Allen didn’t make it to double-double No. 17, his impressive run of 16 consecutive double-doubles remains etched in Cleveland Cavaliers history.

Photo by Erik Drost/Wikimedia Commons

Donovan Mitchell

It’s Official: January Was Donovan Mitchell Month

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Fresh off a 45-point performance in which he willed the Cavaliers to a win over Detroit, Donovan Mitchell received some well-earned accolades.

Prior to tipoff against Memphis on Feb. 1, the NBA announced that Donovan Mitchell will be an Eastern Conference reserve for the 2024 All-Star game. He joins Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Maxey and four others as reserves. (Frankly, Mitchell should be a starter, but we’ll leave that for another post.)

Earlier in the day, the NBA announced that Mitchell had been named the NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January.

Mitchell averaged 28.6 points, 7.6 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game in January, leading the Cavaliers to an 11-2 record. He also posted three double-doubles, his most in a single month of his NBA career.

Giving Mitchell the nod was a no-brainer.

No other player in the league finished the month of January with averages of at least 25 points, five rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Speaking of steals – an underrated part of his game – Mitchell is second in the NBA with just under two steals per game, behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Amazingly, this is only the second time that Mitchell has won the monthly honor, and his first time as a Cavalier.

Mitchell closed out the month with 45 points, six rebounds, eight assists and two steals against a Pistons squad that’s been playing better in recent weeks.

“You’ve got a guy who’s a closer,” J.B. Bickerstaff said of Mitchell after the Pistons game. “You’ve got a guy who you feel like when the game is on the line, you have him and they don’t – and that’s going to give you an opportunity to win.

“And we’ve seen it before, but every time you watch it, you marvel at it because of his ability to do it in the big moments, and when it was needed.”

January Highlights

Where to begin?

Among Eastern Conference leaders, Mitchell ranked second in steals per game, third in plus/minus (+195), fourth in points per game and sixth in assists per game.

Mitchell had at least one steal in 12 of Cleveland’s 13 outings, including eight multi-steal games in January (tied for second-most in the East).

He scored 20 points or more 11 times, including five games of at least 30 points and two 40-point performances. Mitchell and Joel Embiid were the only two players in the East to have multiple games scoring more than 40 points.

Mitchell’s eight games with at least four triples were tied for the second-most in the NBA.

In the Cavaliers’ Jan. 11 win over Brooklyn in Paris, Mitchell exploded for 45 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and four steals, becoming the fifth player in NBA history to reach those totals in a single game and first NBA player to do so since 1994.

In Cleveland’s 40-point win over Milwaukee on Jan. 17, Mitchell tallied his 11,000th career point and became the fastest player in league history to accumulate 11,000 points and 1,200 three-pointers made (443 games), as well as just the fourth NBA player since 1973-1974 to finish with at least 30 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 26 minutes or less.

Bickerstaff said Mitchell stepped up in a big way as Darius Garland and Evan Mobley recovered from their respective injuries.

“The Player of the Month I think was a need thing. He knew that he needed to do just a little bit more because of the bodies that were down,” Bickerstaff said. “He took on the role of the lead ball handler, the lead creator, and he was doing the job to help everybody tick up where we needed them to tick up, and on both ends of the floor, he was contributing. But I think the most impressive thing is in the moment when you needed him most, he found a way to dig down and go out and get it done, and it was infectious throughout the team, and that’s leadership for us.”

A Perennial All-Star

 The 73rd NBA All-Star Game, scheduled for Feb. 18 in Indianapolis, will be Mitchell’s fifth All-Star appearance and his second as a Cleveland Cavalier.

For the season (as of Feb. 2), Mitchell is averaging 28.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

Mitchell’s scoring average is superior to both Eastern Conference starting guards, Tyrese Haliburton (23 points) and Damian Lillard (25.1 points). Mitchell also holds the statistical edge in rebounds and steals.

The seventh-year guard from Louisville is one of just two NBA players this season averaging at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and 1.5 steals – the other being Gilgeous-Alexander.

Mitchell told Bally Sports Ohio’s Serena Winters that he got the news from his mom during the pre-game shootaround in Memphis.

“It’s a blessing. God is good,” Mitchell told Winters. “I wouldn’t be here without my teammates – both awards – I wouldn’t be able to be in this position without the trust of my teammates, this organization, so I’m very grateful. All the hard work you put in at the end of the day comes to fruition, so God is good. I’m very thankful.”

Sam Merrill

Sam Merrill Continues to Impress

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When you live and die by the 3, it’s feast or famine.

That certainly was the case in the first quarter of the Cavs’ Sunday-afternoon tilt with San Antonio.

The Cavaliers have been unabashedly launching 3-point shots in the absence of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. But the lid was on the hoop, as the cliché goes, in the opening frame against the Spurs.

That changed in the second quarter.

In the offseason, the Cavs’ front office made a concerted effort to address the team’s lack of three-point-shooting prowess with the additions of Max Strus and Georges Niang.

A move that didn’t make headlines was the signing of Sam Merrill to a three-year contract in March 2023.

“Man, Merrill sure can get that ball off in a hurry.”

Those were the words of Bally Sports play-by-play announcer John Michael with 8:39 left in the second quarter, when Merrill’s 3-pointer trimmed the Spurs’ lead to five and prompted a Gregg Popovich timeout.

Then, with 7:20 left in the second quarter, Merrill gave the Cavs their first lead of the game.

With 6:28 in the half, Merrill splashed his fifth 3-pointer of the game. He finished the first half with 18 points.

You might think of Merrill solely as a three-point sharpshooter, but the 6-foot-4 Merrill has cemented continued playing time with his high-energy defensive play. The former Utah State Aggie leads the Cavs in charges this season!

If Merrill’s interview snippet on the Bally Sports telecast didn’t hook you on this guy, I don’t know what would.

Merrill clearly takes exception to being typecast as a three-point shooter. “People look at me like I can’t guard and that’s fine,” he said in the interview with Serena Winters. “I’ve always taken a ton of pride on that end. To be honest, I don’t understand why guys wouldn’t. I’m a competitive guy, I want to stand in front of guys, don’t want to get scored on, want to do things the right way.”

I can’t get enough of that guy.

LeVert Shines

I was so glad that the Cavs signed Caris LeVert to a two-year extension this season, on a “team-friendly” $32 million contract. He’s an explosive 3-and-D hybrid guard/forward with good size (6-6), who can create his own shot. His demeanor and work ethic make him a great fit for this team.

What I really respect about LeVert is even when his shot isn’t falling, the former Wolverine finds ways to impact the game with his hustle. He’s a pest on defense, gets rebounds, finds his teammates for open shots and deftly plays the passing lanes.

Lately, it’s all been working for LeVert.

With the Cavs trailing the Spurs by 10 late in the first quarter, LeVert coolly drained a 3-pointer with just 2.3 seconds left. Then, he intercepted the inbounds pass and connected on another 3 just a whisker before the red light flashed on the backboard.

LeVert finished the game – a narrow 117-115 win at home – with 23 points off the bench.

Fro the Hammer Down

Victory Wembanyama, the 7-4 rookie and No. 1 pick overall in the 2023 draft, is a bona fide phenom. But Jarrett Allen was phenomenal Sunday afternoon, notching his seventh consecutive double-double and even blocking one of Wembanyama’s shots at the rim.

The respective stat lines for the talented bigs: 29 points and 16 rebounds for Allen; 24 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots for Wembanyama (who leads the NBA in the latter category).

Parting Shots

The Spurs might be the best 5-30 team you’ll ever see.

The Spurs’ Achilles heel, according to Cavs legend Brad Daugherty, is their lack of size when the minutes-restricted Wembanyama is on the bench.

“I can’t believe this basketball team has only won five games,” Daugherty remarked on the Bally Sports telecast. “They look very disciplined, well-coached.”

You’ll have that with a Gregg Popovich team.

The Cavs were fortunate to end this three-game homestand with another win (after two straight wins over the sadsack Wizards). The Spurs ended the game on a 14-2 run, and had two opportunities to at least tie it in the final minute.

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