Cleveland, Ohio - The Cavs lose a tough one to the Phoenix Suns 117-111.
The Cavs for a second consecutive game were without Dean Wade who is away from the team due to personal reasons while Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus remain sidelined with knee injuries.
The first quarter was the Darius Garland show as the former All-Star scored 21 points. Garland was assertive and accurate with his jumper as he shot ⅞ from the floor and ⅚ from behind the arc. The Cavaliers' offense was firing on all cylinders as they tallied 41 points and 7 out of the 8 guys who played scored a bucket.
In his pregame media availability coach Bickerstaff spoke on how they have to make things tough for Kevin Durant and the Suns on defense;
“You just got to make it difficult. There are certain guys in this league who there is no answer for on this planet and Kevin Durant happens to be one of those guys. When he gets to his spot it's a matter of whether or not he makes he misses the shot. But you've got to try your best to eliminate him from getting to his spot. How disruptive can you be with his dribble when he puts the ball on the floor and between the dribble and his shot release? Can you disrupt his rhythm a little bit by using your hands without fouling, and then you got to hope your teammates give you some help. That's one of the things that we've been good at defensively, we trust each other and it's never a one-on-one match. it's always a five-on-one or whatever the action is.”
Well in the 1st quarter, the Cavs Kevin Durant lead the Suns with 9 points on 4/9 shooting. The wine and gold threw multiple defenders at Durant with Isaac Okoro, Georges Niang, and even Jarrett Allen getting a chance to slow the former MVP down.
After shooting 66% from behind the 3-point line, in the 2nd quarter wine and gold went cold from long distance. While the Cavs only shot 27% on 3PA they found a way to extend their lead to 15 at its largest.
However, the Cavs from the 4:10 mark allowed a 15-5 run from the Suns and they cut the Cavs lead to 70-63.
Darius Garland after a hot shooing opening period went cold in the 2nd quarter, he only scored 4 points and only took 2 shots in 6 minutes of play.
With the Cavs leading by 7 at halftime the 3rd quarter is where Kevin Durant found his rhythm. Durant scored 19 of his 37 points in the quarter and he was 6/8 from the floor including 3 made 3-pointers in a row to maintain a 6-point Suns’ lead.
The 3rd period ended with Suns’ leading 97-91 and the trio of Durant, and Booker Beal being responsible for 73 of the Suns' 91 points.
In the 4th quarter the Suns’ pushed their lead up 10 thanks to a wide-open Grayson Allen 3-pointer due to the Cavs' late rotation on defense. The Cavs rallied back and cut the lead to 2 after Sam Merrill made his first 3-pointer of the game.
The Cavs kept it close and trailed the Suns 113-109 with 2 minutes left in regulation.
After Craig Porter Jr nailed a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 2 on the following possession the Cavs corralled the rebound off a Durant miss with a chance to tie the game. Darius Garland tried to connect with Jarrett Allen for an alley-oop but Allen couldn’t handle the pass, and the Suns came up with the steal.
The home team had another chance to tie the game when Isaac Okoro was spotted up for an open 3-pointer on the right sideline. But the refs called Okoro out of bounds saying his foot was on the line.
So with the Suns nursing a 2-point lead with 21 seconds left the Cavs decided to play the free throw game, fouling Grayson Allen who made both free throws to extend the Suns’ lead to 4.
Darius Garland came down the next possession with a chance to cut the lead to 2 drove the lane and got up a layup through contact, with no foul call and that’s how it ended for the wine and gold.
After the game coach Bickerstaff was asked what changed for Darius Garland from the 1st quarter and the rest of the game. He pointed out that the opposing defense isn't going to just let Darius play.
"It's just the expectation of what the defense is going to do. They're not always going to let him play. They're going to switch more, they're going to trap him more, and he just has to keep making the right play. I think he's done a good job of that, not forcing the issue, trying to do too much, and trust in his teammates. That's gonna go longer for us than any one given night, that he continues to trust (his teammates), they believe that he trusts them, and then we'll make the right plays. We'll get healthy, and we'll be in a good place."
With the Cavaliers missing 2 starters and a rotation player are the Cavs feeling like they just haven't had enough to overcome lately? According to Caris LeVert they don't view it that way.
“We don't really think about it like that. We're just trying to go out there and compete. Whoever's number gets called, just go out there and give it our all. We know that we're capable of winning those types of games. So regardless of who we have out there, that's still what we're trying to do.”
The Suns take care of a beat-up Cavs team 117-11. The Cavs (41-24) resume action on Wednesday, March 13 when they travel to New Orleans to take on the Pelicans (39-25).
