The Cleveland Cavaliers(8-7) showed the Brooklyn Nets(9-8) and the rest of the NBA that maybe, just maybe this team could be for real, and while defeating the Nets on Wednesday in double-overtime was great, beating them on Friday might have been even more impressive.
Behind Collin Sexton’s 25 points and nine assists, Andre Drummond’s 19 points and 15 rebounds, and ex-Net Jarrett Allen’s 19 points off the bench. The Cavaliers swept the two-game set against Brooklyn with a 125-113 victory at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Kyrie Irving led the way for Brooklyn with 38 points. The Nets were without Kevin Durant(rest) on Friday night, but that does not take away from what the Cavs did in these two games.
After numerous injuries to key players, Cleveland is starting to get healthy. Darius Garland and Dylan Windler made their return last night. Both came off the bench, and both were effective. Garland added 11 points, while Windler played well on both ends of the court and added six points.
With almost everybody back(Kevin Love out with calf injury), Cleveland could be a good team, and their head coach J.B. Bickerstaff sees the potential but knows this team still has to keep working.
“I think we have the opportunity and the chance to be a good team,” Bickerstaff said after the game. “But again, we need to keep showing up every day and getting better. Every possession is important for us, every rep in practice is important for us, and we gotta approach every game with the same mindset of who we want to be, and again, we’re still building that. We’re headed in the right direction, I believe, but we’re still building and have room for improvement.”
According to Drummond, Cleveland has everything it needs to be a great team this season.
“The potential for this team is endless,” Drummond said. “We have all the tools to be a great team. There’s no reason why we can’t beat the best teams in the NBA. We have all the tools to do it. We have the heart and the drive to do it. At the end of the day, we have to go out there, and give it our best each and every night.”
It’s still early in the NBA, but Cleveland has proven to have depth, defense, and scoring. However, an NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint, so for Cleveland to be a good team, they have to do it over the long haul, which should be interesting to see as the season moves on.
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