Georges Niang scored twenty in a victory that saw the Cavaliers' bench cleared midway through the third period.
Cleveland improved to 16-1 with the win and will return to action on Sunday against the Toronto Raptors in Cleveland.
Swashbucklings
1) The first thing that some may be wondering is this-
Shawn, the Cavaliers won their first fifteen games and you were nowhere to be found since the opener!
Well, with good reason- I have watched most of the games but I missed a few of the early wins due to conflicts with other sports or real life and once they hit the seven-game mark, I decided that I was going to wait until they lost to start writing about them.
In other words- superstition.
2) New Orleans was missing Zion Williamson, C.J. McCollum, and Brandon Ingram, its three best players.
New Orleans is so battered that they signed Elfrid Payton before the game and started him. He played twenty-two minutes and scored eleven points and eight assists.
3) The Cavaliers weren't at full speed with Darius Garland and Sam Merrill suffering small injuries the night before in Boston.
Not sure how long each player will be sidelined but hopefully both are short-term absences.
4) Ty Jerome started in place of Darius Garland and responded with a career game with twenty-nine points in twenty-three minutes of play, twenty-seven of those points in the first half with seven three-pointers.
5) First-round selection Jaylon Tyson was given his first career start and responded with sixteen points, eleven rebounds, and seven assists.
I've liked what I've seen from Tyson so far in limited minutes.
6) The Cavaliers were so far ahead that they cleared the bench in the third quarter.
JT Thor, who I didn't even know was on the team, hit all four of his shots for twelve points in thirteen minutes, Tristan Thompson played over twenty minutes, and Australian Luke Travers, who I had forgotten about since the Cavaliers drafted him in 2022 played over thirty!
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