CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Down three guards in All-Star Darius Garland and veterans Rajon Rondo and Caris LeVert, the message Saturday night from head coach J.B. Bickerstaff to his team was simple: win ugly with defense.
His Cavaliers did just that.
Cleveland spent most of the evening trailing and their largest lead midway through the fourth quarter was a single point, but down nine, 84-75 with 5:50 remaining, the defense took over and the Cavs closed the game on a 17-2 run to end their three-game losing streak by rallying to beat the Wizards 92-86.
“It’s ugly but it’s winning the competition and winning the scrap,” Bickerstaff said. “We can’t afford to be pretty and smooth through things right now. That hasn’t been our identity to this point and when you’re missing so many parts of your offense, you’ve got to figure something else out. We have to, as an individual and as a team, outwork the man and the team that’s in front of us to give ourselves a chance. I think we did that tonight, especially in that fourth quarter.”
Cleveland helped forced 18 turnovers by Washington and turn them into 23 points. The Cavs won the battle on the glass 49-42 and in the paint 44-32.
Lauri Markkanen scored a team high 23 points, including hitting six of nine from 3, to go with six rebounds and a block to jolt an offense that spent most of the night sputtering without someone to run it and create for teammates.
“All the guys believe in it,” Markkanen said of their defensive effort. “I think we’re all together in it as a team and obviously our coach preaches it to us every day. It fits our personnel and everyone embraces it.”
Kyle Kuzma led the Wizards with 34 points but only six of those came in the fourth. Isaac Okoro helped shut Kuzma down late causing Washington to make just one field goal over the final six minutes – Kuzma’s jumper with 1:11 left that pulled the Wizards within 87-86.
“He’s the type of player who honestly can score zero points and be the most impactful player on the floor,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s not sexy, people don’t write about it, but his impact on winning is second to none and has been since he’s been here with us.
“We’ve put him in some extremely difficult situations since he was a rookie here, and never once has he flinched, never has he wavered. The only thing that he does is try to help us win, and he wins it in the effort, he wins it in a way that most people aren’t willing to do it. I think we’re lucky to have him.”
Cedi Osman finished with 19 points, five assists, four rebounds and a steal in 29 minutes off the bench for Cleveland.
“This game was really important in terms of come back and respond,” Osman said. “We didn’t play great…but we didn’t give up.”
His 12 points in the first half kept them close despite the team shooting just 35% through the first 24 minutes.
“He gave us a chance,” Bickerstaff said. “We were struggling offensively, and what’s most impressive to me is like, he took the conversation that we had and he turned it into action. He understands how much we need him and what he’s capable of and I thought that the past couple games he was in and out of it. But we talked to him, and we knew and we told him how important he is to us, and he responded.”
Jarrett Allen and Even Mobley both notched double-doubles – the 31st for Allen and 14th for Mobley this season. Allen had 18 points and 14 rebounds while Mobley finished with 14 points and 11 boards.
“The cliché saying that defense wins championships [but] defense won us this game tonight” Allen said. “Defense got us those turnovers, got us our points off the turnovers and that’s what we strive off of and that’s what helped us tonight.”
The Cavs are 26-5 this season when Allen records a double-double and 11-3 when Mobley does.
The 86 points allowed marked the 24th time the Cavs allowed less than 100 in a game this season as they won at home for the 14th time in their last 16 games.
“Every game that we win is going to have to start on the defensive end of the floor,” Bickerstaff said.
Defense might not help the Cavs win a championship this season but it surely will keep them in the playoff race until they get healthy.