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Wow,.the Cavs suck all of a sudden after starting the season 8-1. 4 games later and the team resembles nothing like the team that started 8-1. This is pretty disheartening.

Garland looks nothing like the player that finished the season last year.

And Garland with the unnecessary technical. What leadership.

Wow, the Cavs are really bad.

8-5. Four game losing streak after starting 8-1.

Just bad.

kinda started when Garland came back...

As a Jazz fan (well, my family is), I’ve watched Mitchell A LOT. He’s got some issues with injuries … especially when it comes to one of his ankles. He twisted it vs boston and i knew it would linger. He’s gonna miss more games than we would hope throughout each season

The constant negativity is draining. Sheesh! I have no idea how some of you get through life. You are literally miserable over sports teams. smh

I didn't watch the game, but the real narrative is a bit different than what was presented on here. Garland had 51 points, yet he should be benched. LOL

Anyway, here is a game recap.

Darius Garland’s 51-point night, virtuoso fourth quarter not enough as Cleveland Cavaliers lose to Minnesota Timberwolves, 129-124

Updated: Nov. 13, 2022, 10:15 p.m.|Published: Nov. 13, 2022, 8:57 p.m.


By Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Darius Garland nearly did the unthinkable.

The young All-Star point guard scored a career-best 51 points and almost single-handedly lifted the Cavaliers to their most improbable win of the season.

But not even Garland’s career night could end the team’s downward spiral. The undermanned Cavaliers fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, 129-124. It’s Cleveland’s fourth straight loss and first at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. So much for that brilliant 8-1 start.


With silky jumpers and dazzling drives, Garland ignited a lethargic team and electrified the crowd -- at least the fans who stuck it out despite Cleveland facing a one-time 24-point deficit -- during a virtuoso fourth-quarter performance that had injured All-Star backcourt mate Donovan Mitchell bouncing around the sidelines.

Mitchell didn’t play Sunday night because of a sore ankle. Jarrett Allen and Dean Wade missed the game as well.

Garland nearly nullified those losses -- and the many other circumstances working against the Cavs.

“He was phenomenal,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of Garland. “He kept competing. We were sluggish to start with and could’ve very easily laid down early, but he kept getting after it and tried to will us to a win.”

Tapping into his All-Star form that hasn’t shined through that much so far this season, Garland hit on 16 of 31 from the field and 10 of 15 from 3-point range. He poured in 27 of those points during a scintillating fourth quarter that saw the Cavs cut a 20-point deficit following the third to just three in the final seconds. It’s the first 50-point game by a Cavalier since LeBron James in 2017 -- and the first one in the NBA this season. It’s also the 17th game in NBA history a player has had at least 50 points and 10 triples, with Garland becoming the youngest to do that.


After Timberwolves point guard D’Angelo Russell split a pair of free throws, the Cavs had one more chance. Down by three points with 6.5 seconds remaining, there was enough time for Garland to punctuate his masterpiece. Only the Timberwolves sent two defenders at Garland, refusing to let him touch the ball. He couldn’t shake free. Garland didn’t even get a shot, as Kevin Love’s inbounds pass got intercepted and the Timberwolves sealed the win at the foul line.

What a show. What an effort.



“Special. That’s what Darius is capable of,” Love said. “He shot the ball extremely well from 3 and got to his spots and kept us right there in the game. That gave us a chance at the end and that’s all you can ask for. An incredible performance. A masterclass by Darius. We’re hoping for many more of those out of him. Just beautiful.”

The phrase “schedule loss” is well known in the NBA. And Sunday qualifies.

Through three quarters, the Cavs looked very much like a sleepy, jet-lagged team that had returned to Cleveland on Saturday afternoon following an exhausting, cross-country road trip that spun the clock forward three hours. They then tipped off earlier than usual at 6 p.m. without three members of their usual nightly rotation, including a pair of starters.

To say Sunday’s circumstances were unfavorable would be a massive undersell. The game felt over before it even started.

Without defensive stalwart Allen, the lackadaisical Cavs gave up 40 points in the first quarter to Minnesota, which ranks just 23rd on offense this season. The Timberwolves took a 15-13 lead at the 5:50 mark of the first quarter -- and didn’t trail the rest of the night. At one point, the lead ballooned to a game-high 24 points before Garland put the team on his back.


“Just tried to fight,” Garland said. “That was our team mentality, just to fight back. We got ourselves into a hole in the first quarter and we were just trying to dig deep and get back into the game. That’s what we did. Our team is just set on trying to grind everything out, play 48 minutes really hard, and see what the outcome is, so when we fight back, we thought we had a chance and thought we could get over that hump, but we fell a little bit short tonight.”

Little-used Lamar Stevens, inserted into the starting lineup because of the team’s pile of injuries, chipped in with 15 points. Love had 14.

The Timberwolves got a season-high 30 points and 12 assists from Russell. Karl-Anthony Towns added 29.

In the end, it’s another loss. Hardly the homecoming the Cavs wanted after a discouraging road trip that featured three gut-wrenching late-game collapses.


https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/2022...e-to-minnesota-timberwolves-129-124.html

I was confused as hell. I was reading thinking damn, dude played like crap. I decided to look at the box score, wait, what? 51 points, 10-15 from deep, 6 assists…ok, he must’ve turned the ball over a ton…2 TOs. Hm.

I know box scores aren’t everything, but how do you take criticism with a game like that? Is it because D. Russell had 30? Was he guarding someone else?

this might be the most hilarious thing I've ever read in my life coming from you..

in a vacuum it looks like a good game..but it was a selfish game, he took 31 shots...thats just asinine. next closes on team took 12. It was a stat padding game that only looked good in a box score. But the problem with Garland isn't his ability to score points. His job is to make it easier for others to produce.. Garland blows at that. Perfect example, he took 31 shots and had 6 assists. Love and Lavert each shot the ball 11/12 times and both had 1 less assist than Garland. Thats the problem we had with Lebron here, the one man army doesn't work against playoff teams because they got guys that can do that too. But looking at last night and seeing what the bigger issue is and its Mobley, Absolutely sucked, could not have sucked more without being called out for doing it on purpose. All this is to say the biggest struggle the cavs have right now is defense and consistent effort. They need a stretch of easy games to get back in the groove. But Altman needs to bring in a couple players at the deadline. Neto is just trash and don't understand his role, good PGs in Canton that can contribute and we have Neto who had a -17 +/- for the game. We need to get our bench in order, last year the bench was a big reason behind our success. Thats because we had guys love, rubio, and markanen coming in. We don't really have any usable size coming off the bench, We have lopez but lets not pretend he's helping much. So we have Love. We are going to need some more size in the interior and on the perimeter. Still WAAAY early but losing 4 in a row to teams with losing records isn't a good look.

Ugly game last night. I fell asleep at halftime, but we got killed on the boards in the first half and gave up far too many uncontested 3s. Can't win w/that combination.

Garland should not be closing games. That's Mitchell's job.

Cavs have Browns disease.

Cavs were winning by 10 with 1:45 left and are going to OT. Can't make this stuff up.

Cavs were actually winning by 10 with under a minute to go. Survive in double OT.

Oy vey.

Those extra minutes will affect them though. Gotta close that out in regulation

Cavs get the win thanks to some clutch shooting by Garland late in the game to keep them alive.

--Garland is such a smooth player. Excellent shooter and gets his shot up no matter the defense. Barring injury, he's going to be a star for a long time.

--Mitchell had another strong game, but had some careless turnovers early on and missed some key shots late. He still helped us win by making a couple of other big ones.

--Mobley has so many tools. Another smooth player.

--Allen makes a huge difference to this team. His inside presence--combined w/Mobley's--causes issues for other team's interior defense.

--Our pick and roll game is good. I think we have three of the top 10 pick and roll duos in the entire league.

--Our bench sucked. What did they have? Something like 13 pts? Ouch.

--Our defense is not consistent w/it's effort and concentration. That has to change.

--We give up big leads too often. That has to change, as well.

Overall, it was nice to get the win while providing more evidence for the coaching staff to show the players where they need to improve.

Agree with pretty much everything you said.

One of the things that is irking me is I feel like the offense should run through Mitchell late, not Garland. Garland seems like he is trying to prove a point by dominating the ball late. And while he played well last night down the stretch, he makes me nervous that he will make a critical mistake that costs the game. I don't feel the same way with Mitchell. He's a much more established, proven player that I feel will more often than not make the right play. Plus, he's just better. He's the team's best player, he should be dictating the offense late.

We need more from Levert. I feel like he'll be searching for his comfort level all season. He's kind of stuck in no man's land, and I don't think he's sure what the team needs from him. He's a scorer naturally but also a streaky scorer. It's hard for him to sit back, assess the situation, then try and score if the team needs it. That's not how natural, streaky scorers work. I think from him we just need solid play across the board. Top end effort on defense and facilitate when necessary (his passing is underrated).

The other thing we need to do more of is get Love touches in the post. Love is a master at drawing fouls. When we need to slow the game down, go to Love in the post and let him score or get fouled. We can slow the game down and score. On pick and rolls, Love will roll to the basket with the smaller player on him and wave for the ball. 9 out of 10 times he is ignored. I think that is dumb basketball.

I want it with Mitchell more as well, and I think that will happen when games become more important. He’s gotta be the focal point in high leverage situations

I'll add my thoughts to your points one at a time.

--I think the offense runs through both Mitchell and Garland late in games. I think Mitchell was missing and Garland was making in that particular game. If memory serves me correct, I believe Mitchell excelled in the second OT. I think Garland got us to that point w/clutch shooting. I actually think it is a positive that we have two go-to guys on the team who can create for themselves and others.

--I agree completely w/you about LeVert. Dude was on a scoring tear a few seasons ago in Brooklyn and sometimes he confounds me, but you are right about his streakiness. I don't know this for sure, but it looks like he makes good moves to the hole, pulls up and then questions himself on whether to pull the trigger or not. Can't have any negative thoughts when you are a scorer. He will probably be up and down all year due to him being so low on the option totem pole.

--I would agree w/you about Love in the paint, but I would not use him down there w/this particular team. Our pick and roll options w/three different combos is the best in the league. Love would clog the lane and take away the lobs to Allen and Mobley. We don't want that to occur. We just need Love to make 3s, rebound on the defensive end, stretch the D because they have to respect his shot, and throw in some of those awesome outlet passes he is so good at.

In terms of Levert: sometimes there are those enigma type players. Streaky and tough to predict. Clarkson, Levert, Bey, etc. Tough to scout and also tough to predict.

A lot of times coaches put them as the 6th man to try to provide a spark to the rotation

I didn't realize that we played the Heat on Sunday, so I missed the game. We blew them out. Nice to see.

Last night's game was fun to watch. Garland hot early. Mitchell took over afterwards. Allen was a presence in the middle.

Osman w/back to back games w/20+ points. The more I see of him, the more I like him. He is inconsistent and certainly isn't polished, but he plays hard. Full go. Works hard on D and is good in the open court. Competitive guy.

I could do w/out Mobley dribbling the ball up the court. Give it to one of the guards and run the floor.

Pretty good defensive effort last night.

I missed the game, but Atlanta is solid team. Looks like the team is back on track after the little losing streak.

Last night was a good win, especially on a back-to-back.. The Cavs definitely wanted to win that one after getting bounced last year by Atlanta in the play-in game.

The Cavs are still young and learning how to closeout games. Garland and Mitchell still haven't played many games together, but seem to be getting more comfortable with each other.

Mitchell stealing the rebound from Mobley to prevent Mobley from recording his 6th straight double-double was a funny moment. Mitchell looked mortified when he realized what he had done. Good stuff.

Tonights game Blazers @ Cavs should be fun game to watch.

Garland and Mitchell are starting to play much better together. Call me crazy but Stevens has really helped the starting line-up. It’s like he was the perfect piece to the puzzle.

Im going to the Hawks game tonight. Ticket prices are so expensive. Last time I went the arena was only half full. They are going to have lower prices if they expect their fanbase to show up.

The Cavs are good and fun to watch. Garland hogs the ball a little for my taste, but he's really good and usually gets away with it. Other than that, fun team with fun players and a good coaching staff. Easy team to root for. And they root for each other.

I agree with you so I don't think you got my gist. I don't want Love to take touches or pick and roll opportunities away from the star guys. What I do want them to do is -

1. Run the offense through him a little more with the second unit. He's an underrated passer.
2. When Love is in the pick and roll and pins a smaller player down low, stop ignoring him so much and let him go to work down low. This would also typically most often happen with the second unit.
3. When the team needs to slow the game down because they are playing too fast, sloppy, etc., go to Love down low. He's a master at drawing fouls in the post and getting to the free throw line. That's a great way to slow the game down.

Great point about Stevens. I have noticed that, too.

That makes sense about Love. Good point about him w/the second unit. I just don't want it to take away what we do best.

Fun game last night.

--I truly think that we have two bonafide superstars in Mitchell and Garland. They are deadly on the floor together, especially w/the length we have w/Allen and Mobley. The pick and roll game is extraordinary. The other night, I watched the local feed when we played Charlotte. The NBA League Pass doesn't show local telecasts. Their HC, Clifford, was talking about our pick and roll game. He said that we had 3 out of the top 8 pick and roll duos in the entire league. He didn't say who. I'm guessing it went like this:

Garland to Allen
Mitchell to Allen
Either Mitchell or Garland to Mobley.

That's impressive.

The other thing is that both guys get to rest and the other keeps the team afloat during that time. We are truly blessed to have two players of that caliber.

--We need to cut down on the sloppy turnovers.

--We go on incredible runs where we just overwhelm the opponent and last night was no exception.

--I agree w/Frenchy in that Stevens is kind of one of those lunch pail guys who brings toughness to the team and doesn't need the ball to contribute. Those kind of guys are so important when you have other guys who are scorers and ball dominant.

--Mobley covers a ton of ground in the defensive paint. Quick jumper. He needs to refine his offensive game a bit. So much talent. Doesn't have a signature move yet, probably due to him being able to do so many different things. I'd like to see him build his thighs up. He will always be slim, but get stronger in the thighs. Develop the back to the basket in in the middle of the paint and perfect the little jump hook. He can make a lot of money w/that move.

--I get the feeling people don't like Osman, but I like him as a role player. Dude plays hard and w/an edge. I like him coming off the bench.

--Bickerstaff is an impressive coach.

I’m impressed by Allen’s ability to alter shots and rebound attempts for other big guys

I agree. In his time with the Cavs Love has been a floor stretcher. What seems to be forgotten is he is a darn good player in the paint.

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Lopez can’t be on this team and play meaningful minutes. This team is soft as hell tonight especially Mobley and Lopez. JB stuck with a horrible lineup and had a 30 point swing and didn’t call a single time out. They deserve this L. Got start winning games against good teams if you plan on being taken serious

I feel they played alright, but they got NO calls in the 3rd. That is a top 3 team in the NBA we played tonight.

first half for sure, they came out and did what they needed to do, then 3rd quarter again they fold.. thats on JB too. He usually makes quick changes when something isn't working, he stuck with that horrible lineup with Wade and lopez waay too long. We could have used Love and Allen getting hurt didn't help.. This team sure has alot of injuries consistently. Mobley is so frustrating.. he's soooo close to taking that next step. Then games like last night make you wonder if he's going to take it ever. Mobley Def. needs Allen. The two of them together are better than either individual. Lopez is straight garbage, he's like a slower version of AV. I would have went with one of the longer more athletic 5's last night over lopez. Good chance to start another streak sunday against Detroit. I think our biggest weakness right now is our bench in key spots. I'm getting concerned with Garlands/Mitchells utilization. They are both over 36 and Mitchell is at 38, I'd like to see them both in the 33ish range
.

I pretty much agree w/lead on the Bucks game. The Cavs were playing pretty good basketball in the first half, but Milwaukee really took it to them in the 3rd quarter. They wanted it more. They were tougher both physically and mentally than the Cavs were in the 2nd half, especially the 3rd quarter.

Losing Allen was huge. Lopez was brutal. He has a hard time catching the ball. Not having Love hurt, as well.

Also, Mitchell, Garland, and Mobley had too many carless turnovers. That has to stop.

I agree w/lead that JB should have utilized a couple of timeouts. I was literally yelling at the screen for that to happen. He's a good coach and I like him, but he should have tried to stop their runs.

The most disappointing thing to me was in order for the Cavs to beat the Bucks, Mitchell has to go toe to toe with Giannis. He never took that bull by the horns. Giannis may be the best basketball player in the league. Mitchell is top 10. It's a superstar league and you have to have a top player to compete. Really wished Mitchell would have been more aggressive and imposed his will on the game. He was very passive in the second half.

And this is the Bucks without Middleton, Ingles, and connaughton. That doesn't bode well for the Cavs later.