TWO-AND-A-HALF months ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers were teetering. They had just lost their third straight game to fall to 13-12, falling to ninth place in the Eastern Conference, and just had All-Star guard Darius Garland collide face-first with Kristaps Porzingis' hip, leaving the floor general with a fractured jaw.
In the same news release in which the team announced Garland would miss four weeks, the Cavs also declared Evan Mobley, who finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season, would miss six to eight weeks to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.
The sky was falling in dreary Northeast Ohio. Or so it seemed. In their next game, against Atlanta, the shorthanded Cavs logged 41 points in the first quarter — the most J.B.
Bickerstaff's team had scored in a period all season — en route to a eight-point win over the Hawks. They've barely lost since.