Lauri Markkanen finished with twenty points with Darius Garland picking up his first career triple-double ( 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 15 assists) to help Stevens in the Cavalier victory.
Cleveland will visit San Antonio Friday night before finishing their six-game road trip Saturday night in Oklahoma City.
Swashbucklings
1) Before the game, the Cavaliers announced that general manager Koby Altman's contract had been extended through 2027 and added the title of director of basketball operations to his business card.
Altman had his share of struggles in his first few seasons as general manager but has done a very good job over the last year in his reshaping of the Cavaliers roster.
Some of that was fortunate breaks such as Detroit and Houston taking Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green (especially Houston!) over Evan Mobley but part of being a quality personnel evaluator is being lucky enough to have players available in the draft that shouldn't be and then being smart enough to take them when they fall and his trades over the past year to land Jarrett Allen, Ricky Rubio and a sign and trade for Lauri Markkanen have been positives.
Maybe you could argue that half a season of strong play isn't enough to extend Altman right now but Altman only has one year remaining on his contract and the Cleveland thinking is likely to take speculation off the table for the next year and a half to give the franchise some stability.
2) Lamar Stevens's twenty-three points led the team and Stevens scored the first thirteen points for Cleveland in the second half.
Stevens is a player that I've liked since Cleveland signed him last season, he'll be a role player at best over his career but role players that do one or two things well have no problems finding employment and can have long careers.
3) Utah was at a major disadvantage in this game as the Jazz were missing all three of their centers (including Rudy Gobert) due to Covid-protocol and dressed only eleven players.
Utah used 6'5 Royce O'Neale at center in desperation, hoping that O'Neale's quickness would help at least somewhat against the taller Cavalier big men and O'Neale did finish with nine rebounds to lead the Jazz in that department.
Cleveland's clear game plan was to bang the ball to their big men to use their height advantage and it worked as their three frontcourt starters finished with 49 points and 23 rebounds.
4) Utah finished the game with only ten players after starter Joe Ingles drew a technical foul in the first quarter after an elbow to the head of Jarrett Allen and a second in the second quarter for a referee beef.
Ingles had missed four games in Covid protocol and lasted thirteen minutes in his return.
5) Darius Garland's triple-double was the first of his career and the first for a Cavalier since Kyrie Irving's three stat stuffer back in 2014.
6) The Cavaliers slammed this one in the win column early in the third quarter with a chunk of the thirteen-point streak of Lamar Stevens part of a 21-0 run to leave the Jazz in the dust with Cleveland leading by 25!
7) Rajan Rondo missed the game with a tight hamstring and Denzel Valentine, who was the player that Cleveland traded to acquire Rondo, made his debut with the Jazz.
Valentine would score five points in seventeen minutes of playing time.
8) As for Rondo, he was listed as questionable entering the game and some of this could be maintenance for Rondo, who has seen a significant increase in his minutes since arriving in Cleveland and the signing of Brandon Goodwin to a two-way contract can occasionally allow Rondo to rest up.
No comments:
Post a Comment