Former Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James was a mere 13 years old the last time they actually won a playoff game without him on the team. It came all the way back in 1998.
It’s a stunning reality. The kid from Akron has overseen the only eras in Cavaliers history that the team has been relevant since all the way back in 1992 when Larry Nance led Cleveland to the Eastern Conference Finals.
This is now a thing of the past. Making their first appearance in the NBA Playoffs since the James-led Cavaliers lost to the Golden State Warriors in the 2018 NBA Finals, this team is now tied up with the New York Knicks at one in the first round of the playoffs.
After being blown out at home to open things up earlier in the week, Cleveland absolutely manhandled the Knicks. It was not close after the first half with the Cavaliers outscoring New York 34-17 in the second stanza.
Star guard Darius Garland also made some history in the first half. He joined King James and Kyrie Irving as the only Cavaliers players to score 25 points in a half of a postseason game over the past quarter-century.
Garland finished the game with a team-high 32 points as fellow star guard Donovan Mitchell (6-of-11 shooting) took to more of a distribution role with 13 assists. The end result was a stirring 107-90 win over New York and a scene we have not witnessed since LeBron James was doing his thing inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are here to stay
As we noted above, Mitchell took a secondary role to Garland in Game 2 against the Knicks. It’s just the latest example of how dynamic this backcourt tandem can be. They finished a combined plus-53 in 75 minutes of action.
Defensively, Atlanta held the Knicks to 37% shooting, including 7-of-29 from three-point range. New York’s starting three-guard lineup of Quentin Grimes, RJ Barrett and Jalen Brunson shot a combined 9-of-32 from the field. For his part, Brunson was minus-10 in 36 minutes of action.
Yeah, it was complete and utter domination from the Cavaliers in what was a must-win game for J.B. Bickerstaff’s team after a 51-win regular season.
“We talked about this before and our group is aware, we’ll go as far as quickly we learn from out mistakes. We make these mistakes again, we’ll struggle,” Bickerstaff said after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Game 1 loss.
About that? While Garland and Mitchell did combine for six turnovers, Cleveland’s bench did its thing to maintain momentum while taking care of the ball.
Danny Green, Cedi Osman and Caris LeVert turned the ball over just six times in a combined 81 minutes of action. For his part, LeVert responded after a disastrous three-point performance in Game 1 by scoring 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting. Cleveland was also plus-25 in his 39 minutes of action.
It’s the attention to detail Cleveland has been missing without LeBron James over the past several years. In prior seasons, things would end snowball for the Cleveland Cavaliers after an ugly outing. That’s no longer the case with Garland and Mitchell leading the charge.
Moving forward, Cleveland put the Knicks and the rest of the Eastern Conference on notice with its 17-point win Tuesday night. The organization is back.
It’s been a long time coming given the fact that Garland and fellow youngster Evan Mobley were not even born the last time Cleveland won a playoff game without King James doing his thing for the franchise. Let that sink in for a second.
