The Cavs look … Good?
The Cavs are … well they’re the Cavs. They are in second last place in the league, only having a better record then the Warriors (how the tables have turned right ?) They have the second worst defensive rating in the league, and Kevin Porter Jr forgot to put his jersey on before Wednesday night’s game against the Celtics, and yes that is a real thing that happened. When Porter Jr took off his warm-up clothes before the game started he only had his undershirt on, and he had to run to the locker room and get his jersey, but not before Mathew Dellavedova took his spot in the starting lineup. Despite all of that, this team is still so fun to watch. Colin Sexton has exploded his past 5 games, averaging 30 points per game (29.6 to be exact, but hey lets round up, its all I’ve got this season okay) while also slightly improving his assist numbers from 2.9 to 3.6 per game. The Cavs have won 4 of their last 10, and for most NBA teams that would be a bad stretch but with the Cavs its tied for their best 10 game stretch of the season. The Cavs beat two playoff teams last week in the Miami Heat, and the Philadelphia 76ers, and they even beat the 76ers by 14 points !!! Yes, Joel Embid left the game 7 minutes into it because of injury, and yes Ben Simmons never touched the court because of his back injury, but the Cavs still beat them. They are finally starting to play as a team, Kevin Love doesn't seem to want to leave the team as much as he did a couple months ago (hes on line with that 5 month timeline he told reporters during the trade rumors) and Larry Nance Jr is playing amazing in the starting lineup while Tristan Thompson has been out with a knee injury.
The Cavs played a great game against the third place Celtics on Wednesday night, they ended up losing the game by six points, but they fought with the Celtics from start to finish. Colin Sexton had the best game of his short career, scoring a career high 41 points, along with six assists and three rebounds. Sexton shot 56% from the field (10% higher than his season average) and 33% from three. Sexton is proving that he can be a great player in this league for years to come. The Cavs and their new coach J.B Bickerstaff (stellar name) have been testing him more at the two guard position instead of him exclusively playing point guard, and it is working for him. Sexton is a bonafide scorer and when they put him at the point guard position, he is less effective, because he is not a great passer yet, and he causes a lot of turnovers. If they move Sexton exclusively to the two and put a guy like Dante Exum at the point, then they could get the most value out of Sexton, and therefore the team.
The Cavs have been embroiled in drama this whole year, from the early season Kevin Love outbursts, where he was yelling at his coach, and publicly requesting a trade, just a year after he had said he was in on the Cavs rebuild and that he wanted to be a part of it. Then there was the controversy with their now former coach, John Beilein. Beiliein accidentally called the players, “thugs” instead of slugs, when he was talking about their ability to play defense. Now, the Cavs seem to be back to just playing basketball, John Beilien was fired during the All Star Break, as it seemed he never knew what he was getting himself into. Before taking the Cavs coaching job, Beilein was the coach for the Michigan college basketball team. Going from coaching College basketball to the NBA is a very different world, and from the outside it seemed that Beiliein never really got comfortable with his players, and the players did not seem to get very comfortable with him either (getting called thugs usually does not help with that). Kevin Love seems to have moved on from his prior disappoint with the Cavs, and now he is fully embracing his role on the team, and after Wednesdays game he took to twitter to share some encouraging words to Sexton, “ In my 12 years, he’s right at the top for hardest worker I’ve seen/been around.” For a guy who has played with the likes of Lebron James and Kyrie Irving that is a very big compliment for Sexton, and its great to see that the team is really starting to mesh together.
The Cavs have 20 games left for the season and right now they sit at 17–45, and while I hope they can have a good rest of the season, it looks like they are going to finish the season under the 25 win mark, but the team is playing like a good professional basketball team now and I’m excited to watch the rest of the season and see how it plays out.
