Garland carries Cavs to best start in franchise history

Garland wouldn’t let the Cavs lose as he matched Damian Lillard shot-for-shot in the fourth quarter.

The Cleveland Cavaliers played like one of the very best teams in basketball in the first half. They jumped out to a 19-point lead in the second quarter only to surrender it completely in the second half. Cleveland righted the ship thanks to a stunning 39-point performance from Darius Garland to pull out a 116-114 victory.

The win improves the Cavs to 8-0 which ties the 1976-77 team for the best start in franchise history.

The Bucks came into this game shorthanded without Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Cavs quickly took advantage of this by doubling Damian Lillard and attacking their smaller front line offensively.

The Cavs generated a string of easy, catch-and-shoot threes to open the game. Milwaukee didn’t have a way to stop the guards, which has been an all too familiar trend, as Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell combined for 25 points in the first quarter. This was a preview of how Garland’s night was going to go.

Milwaukee Bucks head coach, Doc Rivers, was clear before Monday’s game that Evan Mobley’s development is the biggest difference between who the Cavs are this season compared to years past.

“Mobley may be the biggest difference overall,” Rivers said. “He has the ball in his hands way more than he’s ever had the ball in his hands. He’s bringing the ball up. He’s being a version of Giannis [Antetokounmpo] at times.”

Mobley showed that in the second quarter when he did these things in the opening four minutes:

• Reverse dunk
• Drew an offensive shooting foul
• Blocked a Delon Wright layup then took it coast to coast for a dunk

• Drained a three-pointer
• Then assisted Sam Merrill for another three

This allowed the Cavs to stretch the lead to 19 just before the break, but Milwaukee reeled off a 10-5 run to cut the lead to 13 just before the half.

Lillard took over from there. He scored five quick points in the opening of the third quarter and kept pouring it on. He relentlessly attacked no matter how the Cavs defended him. His 14 third-quarter points allowed Milwaukee to turn a double-digit deficit into a two-point advantage heading into the fourth.

Milwaukee’s reserves built off of that as they extended the lead to seven at the start of the fourth as the Mitchell and Mobley bench unit was uncharacteristically bad. Things turned around when Garland and Jarrett Allen re-entered.

The Cavs had to fight and claw all the way until the end. Fortunately for them, Garland was ready for the fight. He knifed his way to the basket repeatedly in the fourth quarter attacking their depleted front line. When the defense collapsed on him, he handed it off to one of the bigs. When they didn’t, he took the easy basket.

Lillard had it going all night, finishing with 36 points. But Garland was there to counter him every step of the way.

Lillard knocked a step back three down with under minute and a half left to give Milwaukee a three-point lead. Garland responded with a floater of his own. On the next possession, he hit his own step-back triple to give the Cavs the lead. He then found Allen for a game-sealing basket after Lillard missed a step-back three over Okoro.

This wasn’t the most impressive win of the 8-0 start. They should’ve been able to handle a struggling Bucks team without Antetokounmpo after they got up 19. But staying perfect is hard.

In the end, they got the job done and that’s all that matters this particular evening. And they have Darius Garland to thank for that.