With no Donovan Mitchell to save them, the Cleveland Cavaliers needed a heroic effort from somebody else as they trailed by nine points to the Indiana Pacers going into the fourth quarter on Tuesday. His fellow All-Star backcourt partner Darius Garland came to the rescue this time, scoring 14 points on a perfect 7-of-7 from the field, as the Cavs rallied to a 120-116 win on the road against their Central Division foes.
“That was ‘Takeover DG' from last year,” Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson said postgame. “He really hit some big, big shots, and tough shots.”
Coming into this game, Garland ranked toward the bottom of the NBA in the clutch. Until Indiana, he was 10-of-23 for 27 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists versus five turnovers. He'd been just 2-of-7 from long distance, too. That changed against the Pacers in a hurry.
“Getting some easy ones throughout the game,” Garland said after the win, noting the blitz coverage allowed him to work away from the ball. “The back door was just working since everyone was pressuring so much.”
All of Garland's shots, besides one long jumper, were made inside of 16 feet. He had the two-man game working with both Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, who both found him consistently when Cleveland needed buckets.
“A great, PG general,” Mobley said. “Controlled the pace of the game. We got into our actions, and he took the open, easy ones. Got off [the ball], back cut, and was just playing good basketball.”
His most devastating make was a heavily contested pull-up shot near the free-throw line that put the Cavs up 117-114 with 12.5 seconds remaining. It was a foul game from there on out, and Cleveland finished it off.
Last season, Garland was among the best in the league in crunch time with .534/.450/.865 shooting splits. Though it's been the polar opposite this campaign thus far, Tuesday was a stark reminder that the soon-to-be 26-year-old is one of the top talents in the NBA when he gets it going.
“We need it. We don't have that, we lose,” Atkinson said. “It was reminiscent of last year's clutch play; he was one of the best clutch players in the league last year. The floater over [Jay] Huff and then that mid-range on the left elbow, I felt like there were three guys around him, and he just kind of snaked it back. Those are big-time shots. He was great.”
Furthermore, Garland admitted that his back was bothering him as the fourth quarter progressed, making this performance all the more admirable.
“It's good, though,” Garland said of the soreness. “Got the win. That's all that mattered.”
“That's the Darius we love and know,” added Craig Porter Jr., who played just as big a role in Cleveland's resurgence. “It's big for him to see all those things happen. I think somebody said he had no free throws, so doing all that with no free throws and ending up on the ground as many times as he did, we know he's that type of player, and we love seeing that.”
Of course, having to exert the energy to dig out of a hole means that the Cavs created one in the first place. That's an area the team would like to clean up.
“I hate it,” Garland said. “I don't like it. We're not used to it, but we do have enough talent that we can get away with it, which is not a good thing. I think our first three quarters have to be like our fourth, so we can sit down in the fourth quarter if we need to. And that gets Tyrese [Proctor] some reps, some guys that really don't play as much, some reps. But all that matters is the W.”
“We're just figuring it out,” Porter added. “We're down and out, we had to figure it out as far as defensively. They were hitting big shots. We really just picked up our defense and just got out there, 1-5 red, and everybody can switch with everybody. So it just made it a lot harder for them to get into their actions that were working in the first half.”
Garland has slowly but surely come along as his toe has gradually gotten better. Besides some untimely, uncharacteristic turnovers that he and Mitchell had in the previous two games, it looks like his step is getting quicker, and his vision has never left. If his jump shot starts creeping back to the form of last season, as it has been, Cleveland will be in a good place.
The Cavs are now 21-17, heading for a home-and-home series with the Minnesota Timberwolves, which starts on the road Thursday night.
