James Harden, Keon Ellis, and Dennis Schroder all made their home debuts for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at Rocket Arena, and they all played a part in a 138-113 victory over the Washington Wizards to extend the wine-and-gold winning streak to five games heading into the NBA All-Star break. They may be new faces to the team, but the Cleveland crowd gave everybody a warm welcome.
“The crowd is always crazy,” Harden said postgame. “Every time I come here as a visitor, they're crazy about the Cavs and The Land and very loyal, and they show up every single night. It's one of the things that I was mostly excited about, so tonight was no different.”
In his Cavs home debut, Harden put up a modest 13 points, 11 assists, 4 rebounds, and a block in 28 minutes of action. He was bothered by his “carelessness” with the ball, evidenced by six turnovers. However, the chemistry he's established with the guys in the first three games he's played has been natural, so much so that he barely had to score.
Sam Merrill's 32-point outburst, Donovan Mitchell's ho-hum 30-ball, and Jarrett Allen's perfect 8-of-8 showing are a perfect illustration of the weaponry Cleveland possesses, Harden stated, and he is simply here for one reason.
“I shoot four shots, but we win by 25 points,” Harden said. “That's the most important thing. I'm just here to win, so whatever that looks like, if I've got to go out there and score a lot of points, or I've got to take four shots and we win, that's the most important thing for me. And tonight was one of those examples.
“Other than the turnovers, I wasn't going to go out there and force shots. First home game, I'm excited, definitely excited, but we play the right brand of basketball and guys understand the right brand of basketball that we're going to play consistently. It's going to come to me. There's going to be nights where I score 35-40, you know what I mean? That's like the mindset for all of us. So Sam got it going. Don obviously had it going. JA played extremely well. Who's next?”
Aside from Harden, the first two acquisitions of the Cavs' trade deadline made their presence known, too, and they felt the energy.
“Really good, really good,” Ellis said. “Tyrese [Proctor] told me that the fans — I've heard from others as well — I've heard the fans are really good here. It's a sports town. Actually, Matthew Dellavedova — he was my teammate when I was in Sacramento — texted me when I got traded. He was like, ‘Yeah, you'll love it. Definitely a sports city.’ So yeah, definitely was good energy in there tonight, for sure.”
“The fans was incredible,” Schroder added. “To be on this side now, it's amazing. I'm looking forward to it, to have a home crowd like this every single home game. The first couple of months before, beginning of the season, was kinda tough. But to have a home crowd who is behind you every single game is something special, and we're not gonna take it for granted.”
Schroder and Ellis both played with different combinations and lineups between members of the starting five and the bench. Both made a huge impact and, most importantly, showed the grit that Cleveland got them for.
“I was playing AD [Anthony Davis], with Bron [James], on the same court with Austin Reaves,” Schroder said. “In the last six to seven years, I just found my way to affect the game, or affect winning. Whatever it is that game, that's what I'mma try to do. The dog mentality, I think we've got high character guys in this locker room, but if we turn it up there, I think on the defensive side of the ball especially, I think we can do a lot of big things here. I'm looking forward to that.”
“At the end of the day, we're all just going out there trying to play hard and just trying to get wins,” Ellis added. “And I mean, the way that I play in my role, I think it’s easily translatable. But I just go out there, just try to make winning plays, be in the right spots, and just do my job and let everything take care of itself. So I think we're all professional. We know what should be done and what shouldn't, and so I think that makes it easy on everyone.”
The Cavs have closed the unofficial first half of the season on a high note, just scratching the surface on what they could be capable of. It's time to recharge, then, when everybody gets back, as Schroder put it, “it's go time.”
