CLEVELAND, Ohio – Midway through the third Quarter of the Cavaliers Friday night matchup with the San Antonio Spurs, one stat stood out among the others on the score sheet.
Zero.
As in, zero points for the Cavaliers bench.
It wasn’t until the 2:44 mark of the third quarter that the Wine and Gold reserves found the score sheet, but the hole the Cavs dug themselves was too deep to climb out of as they suffered a 116-110 setback to the Spurs at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
“We don’t have the opportunity to ease our way into games,” Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
For the first 33 minutes and change, the Cavs dipped their toes into the water only to quickly pull it back out.
It wasn’t until Lamar Stevens entered the game that the Wine and Gold showed any signs of life.
“I wanted to come in and change the game,” Stevens said.
Change it, he did.
“I’m a guy that can come in and bring a lot of energy and a lot of different intangibles, Stevens continued. “I saw our energy was a little low starting the game.”
The Spurs ran a second half lead out to 22 points in the third quarter. That’s when Stevens stepped onto the floor and immediately flipped the switch.
“I thought we were lacking the things that he brings. I thought we were lacking grit. I thought we were lacking toughness,” Bickerstaff said. “He’s got an infectious energy about him because of how hard he plays. I knew I could count on him to bring it and that ended up impacting everybody else.”
Stevens finished with a career-high 15-points and 11 rebounds, providing much-needed supplemental offense for the suddenly top-heavy Cavaliers.
“He’s going to compete and he’s going to bring toughness,” Bickerstaff said. “He’s not going to take any shortcuts; he’s not going to take any easy way out.”
Collin Sexton and Darius Garland combined to score 58 of the Cavaliers’ 110 points.
“Tonight, me and Darius just played off eachother,” Sexton said.”We’re not overthinking it. We’re just going out there and playing free.”
The back-court duo teamed up to score 19 of the Cavaliers’ 22 first-quarter points and 29 of the 42 total points scored in the first half.
Garland finished with a career-high 29 points and eight assists as Sexton added 29 points of his own, but the offense largely dried up elsewhere.
“We’ve got to move more. The way they play, they protect the paint extremely well. They switch a lot of stuff,” Bickerstaff said. “They invite you to play isolation basketball. But our defense has to help us out. We’ve got to get some stops so we can get out. I thought we didn’t play early on with enough pace and tempo.”
Coincidentally, Patty Mills has been a model of consistency coming off the bench for the Spurs, recently surpassing former teammate Manu Ginobili in three-pointers made off the bench in NBA history with one team.
Mills was at it again Friday night, pouring in 12 points off the bench while connecting on a trio of 3s. His three-pointer from the left-wing with 2:01 to play put the Spurs up by 13 points and appeared to be the nail in the coffin.
But the Cavs went on a furious rally in the final two minutes pulling within 114-110 on a 3-pointer by two-way player Brodric Thomas with 9 seconds left.
“We need to make a few more shots from the other positions in order to help. What teams are doing now is, they’re daring us to shoot 3s,” Bickerstaff said. “They’re running a bunch of people into the paint and daring us to shoot 3s. So, we’ve got to make some shots from the other positions in order to open it up for everybody.”
Thomas, Stevens and Dean Wade combined for the Cavaliers 26 points off the bench, which matched the Spurs total at the final buzzer.
“We just couldn’t come back from that hole,” Garland said. “Three quarters too late.”
Garland, Sexton each score 29 points in loss to Spurs
