An extra hour of sleep was great news for Cavaliers fans who stayed up watching Donovan’s game-winning shot over and over again last night. The Cavs came out flat for the first time this season, Saturday night in Milwaukee and they would have had a valid excuse for doing so. Seven games in eleven days, with two weekend back-to-backs with the latter game being on the road. It would also be tough to find a more desperate team than the Bucks last night, after a 1-4 start. Dame shooting the lights out in the first quarter and Giannis looking like himself. It all seemed like a perfect storm for the Cavs to take their first loss of the season.
Fast forward a couple of hours later and the Cavs are 7-0, the best record in the NBA. It would be easy to talk about Donovan and his clutch shot, but the depth of the Cavaliers is why they won this game. Kenny used his 10-man rotation to perfection to get them back in this game. Isaac Okoro entered the game with a tough task of cooling down Damian Lillard, while Dame still had the best game of his early season, Okoro’s effort could be seen throughout.
Isaac will always bring his best on the defensive side of the floor, but when he plays like he did last night on the offensive floor, he becomes a perfect six-man off the bench. Isaac went 3-4 from deep and had eight huge rebounds in his 28 minutes of action. He got the well deserved praise after the game too. Donovan Mitchell minutes after he hit the stadium silencing last-second shot didn’t want to talk about himself; “It’s not about the shot, it’s about Okoro’s rebound, we don’t get that last possession without him, diving on the floor, calling timeout, that’s what it’s all about.”
Another bench player who shined last night was Sam Merrill. Cleveland saw numerous times last season his ability to swing a game with his three-point shooting. Inserting Sam last night instantly gave the Cavs a boost with a couple of quick threes, and he finished the game with five of them. It was his defensive effort that was the talking point for his teammates in the locker room. “The charge, the defensive effort … being able to compete, get in and rebound, push the pace and offensively hit those threes, It just speaks to our team, we’re so diversified.” Said Spida in his locker room interview.
Cleveland knows all too well how quickly expectations can go down the drain, looking at the Browns’ start to their season as an example. Despite just two weeks into this Cavaliers season, it’d be tough not to set expectations at the top. This team seems different than those of the past and there are a couple of reasons to point at. Most will point at the head coaching change, Kenny’s fast-paced style, and forcing Evan Mobley to be the player all of Cleveland knows he can be certainly gets some of the credit. Others will look at the buy-in from the team as well as management. Re-signing Donovan was obviously the headline of the off-season, but giving the role players and starters alike the security of knowing where they’ll be playing for future years seems to have made a big difference in the locker room, and the players have said as much.
Whatever reason you choose to point to, the Cavs don’t seem to be going anywhere. Last season, Cavs fans were mostly happy with a playoff series win and a somewhat competitive series against the eventual NBA Champion Celtics. Early in this season, through two short weeks, the two same teams seem destined for another playoff matchup. After the start of this season, surely the result can be very different.
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