CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The result of Sunday’s regular season finale seemed secondary to securing a favorable first round playoff matchup for the Cavaliers.
Max Strus recorded his first career triple double and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff emptied his bench in the final 12 minutes that saw Charlotte outscore Cleveland 32-14 to beat the Cavs 120-110 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Here’s our top Wine & Gold Nuggets from Sunday afternoon.
Magic matchup – The fourth seeded Cavs will face Orlando, who is fresh off burying the Bucks in their regular season finale Sunday at home. “They're big. Obviously they got great positional size all over the floor” Bickerstaff said. “They got individuals who can create their own shot, put a ton of pressure on you, and they're really sound defensively if you allow them to play in the half court again, they use their size defensively to keep everybody in front, crowd the paint and make it difficult.” The two teams split their regular season games – Cleveland won at home December 6 121-111 and in Orlando 126-99 January 22 while the Magic came out on top 104-94 December 11 at home and 116-109 in Cleveland February 22. “They're tough,” Strus said. “They play physical, they play hard, and they're young and they're hungry. So we better be ready to match the physicality, and the physicality goes up in the playoffs, so we better be ready to make some tough plays. Play tougher. Just play our game. We got enough talented guys in this locker room.” Game one likely will be Saturday. “It's one of those first 85 type of games,” Jarrett Allen said. “It's just going to be a lot of defense going on. Nothing's going to come easy in the paint or on the three-point line.”
Scoreboard watching – Bickerstaff had his assistants monitoring scores during the second half Sunday. The loss dropped the Cavs to 48-36 in the regular season, one full game behind Milwaukee for the Central division title. The Bucks got trucked by Orlando, 113-88. Had the Cavs won, they had the tie breaker on Milwaukee to secure the division and the No. 3 seed, which would have lined them up to play the sixth seeded Pacers. “It was difficult, but again, we had our plan in place of what we were going to do with our guys,” Bickerstaff said. “They were going to play those three quarters. And then again, Craig [Porter Jr.] not being out there made it a little difficult in the fourth quarter to organize and score, but we wanted to stick to our plan and no matter what was going to happen, we were going to give our guys opportunities to play.” Not everyone was a fan of Bickerstaff’s plan. “I wanted to win,” Strus said. “I don't really know what else to say about it. I'm kind of mad we didn't, but I'm glad younger guys got the chance to play a little bit more.”
First for Strus – Strus finished with 14 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, his first ever triple double. “I have mixed emotions about it,” Strus said. “I wish it came with a win, but at the same time, I know it's not easy to do, so pretty happy about it and something that I can have to talk about with my kids later in life. But yeah, I mean I'm happy it could happened. Not happy about the results of the game, but I thought I played well with the circumstances given tonight.”
Hot hand – Allen hade all seven field goal attempts Sunday as he scored 14 points. He has made 20 of 21 shots over the last two games. “I don't like missing shots,” Allen said. “There's a time before when it used to be like that all the time. I've kind of slowed down on the field goal stuff, but I'm getting back on track.” Allen, who registered 42 double-doubles this season, has become an underrated centerpiece of this year’s team. “Jay is unbelievable,” Georges Niang said. “He's kind of a guy that flows under the radar for some people outside of this organization, but the value that he brings to this team is immeasurable. He's been tremendous. He shows up, he plays hard, he doesn't complain and he does all the little things. That definitely helped this team win.”
Iron man – Niang is the only Cavalier to play all 82 games this season. “He hasn't missed a day of practice or whatever it is that we've done,” Bickerstaff said. “He's been there every single day. And again, I think that deserves high praise in today's league where he's a guy who just knows how important it's to be available and want to be available and play in all 82 games. I think there's just a consistency to it to his approach, work ethic, how he takes care of himself, all those things. Toughness that he plays through certain things.” Niang scored 16 off the bench Sunday. “I love basketball,” Niang said. “If someone told me I could have all my bills paid and I could play at the YMCA, I'd probably do it every single day. But I enjoy my job. I like playing and so I go in every year expecting that I'm going to play and I try and take care of my body as well as I can. And I was lucky enough to have a good training staff here and that supports me and can keep me nimble and fit and ready to play 82 games.”
Get well – Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Caris LeVert, Sam Merrill, Dean Wade and Ty Jerome sat out the regular season finale. “It's not rest,” Bickerstaff said. “Those guys have things that they're dealing with that we're trying to protect over the long term. So it's not guys who are just taking today off, right? Darius has been dealing with some stuff, Donovan obviously, and Caris as well. So that was the thinking going into it is if we can give them yesterday and today and get out throughout this week, hopefully by Saturday or Sunday, whenever it is that we play, that's an advantage for us.”
Porter injured – Craig Porter Jr. was helped to the locker room after suffering a left ankle sprain at the 2:30 mark of the first quarter with the Cavs up 26-18. Porter couldn’t put any pressure on it as he was helped off the floor by staff.
Starting 5 – Bickerstaff went with Craig Porter Jr., Max Strus, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen Sunday afternoon.
