Game Night Observations: Fight night, Garland stepping up, and monitoring Rubio
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.comThe Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 128-113 on Thursday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on a night when the actual basketball took a backseat.
With 5:48 remaining in the third quarter and the Cavaliers holding an 81-76 lead over the Grizzlies, Dillon Brooks drove to the rim and had his shot blocked by Evan Mobley. Donovan Mitchell grabbed the rebound and Brooks hit the hardwood near his feet. Brooks then rolled over and stuck Mitchell in the groin with a closed fist.
“For sure,” Mitchell said when asked if Brooks took a cheap shot at him. “That’s just who he is. We have seen it a bunch in this league with him.”
Chaos ensued.
Mitchell threw the ball at Brooks while losing his balance. He then shoved Brooks in the chest and threw him to the ground as retaliation. After that, a Memphis security guard tackled Brooks as players from both teams rushed to the scene to defend their respective teammates.
The play went to review and both players were ejected for their actions. Brooks’ swing at Mitchell was deemed a Flagrant-2, while Mitchell was tossed for throwing the basketball at Brooks in retaliation.
“If somebody makes a play like that, you should have the right to stand up for yourself,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of Mitchell’s ejection. “That was a cheap shot in multiple ways.”
Brooks is no stranger to controversy of this kind. Just a couple weeks back he was involved in an altercation with Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe during a game with the Los Angeles Lakers. To say that Brooks doesn’t have a plethora of fans on opposing NBA teams would be accurate.
After the game, Mitchell found his way to the podium so he could address what had occurred that led to his ejection. Mitchell didn’t mince words when speaking on Brooks.
“Him and I have had our personal battles for years,” Mitchell said of Brooks. “Quite frankly I’ve been busting his ass for years. Playoffs. Regular season. And the one game he does an alright job on me today, he decides to do something like that. No place for that in the game. Gotta protect yourself. This has been brewing for years. With me. With other guys in the league. You all see it. This isn’t new. Tonight was just the end of it. Tough when you can’t guard somebody and can’t do something with somebody, you have to resort to that. And that is what he has done to a lot of players.
“This isn't just a Donovan thing. This has happened to other players throughout this league. And it's bullsh**. If we're being honest with you, it's complete bullsh**.”
Mitchell wasn’t the only member of the Cavs to be outspoken about Brooks’ antics on Thursday night. Bickerstaff was when he took his turn at the podium, as was Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio.
“I mean, it was a dirty play from the other dude over there. Tried to hit him in his groin area,” Garland said after the game. “That’s all it was. We’re no sisses over here. We’re not going for all the little cheap shots and stuff like that.”
“One thing is playing hard, the other thing is playing dirty, so I think that was a dirty play and Donovan stood his ground. I was supportive to do that,” Rubio said. “Even if he gets ejected, I mean, that was a dirty play. That shouldn't be allowed in this league.”
It was a play that there’s certainly no place for in the NBA. Brooks may not have purposefully hit Mitchell in the groin, but there’s little doubt that he was attempting to strike Mitchell. Even while Mitchell was ejected for throwing the ball at Brooks, the Cavs certainly don’t think he was wrong for that.
“That's one thing, I'm proud of our guys, we don't have those guys that start sh**, but we got guys that don't run from sh**,” Bickerstaff said. “You have to in this league, you have to stand up for yourself. That's what he did and that's what his teammates had his back.”
Teammates having Mitchell’s back was clear not only with how the rest of the game played out, but also with what was said following the win, too.
“We gotta [stand] our ground and we did,” Rubio said. “I think if they would let us jump on the court, I think the whole bench would be there for Donovan and for any of us.”
While the moment obviously has no place in the game, it is one that can be spun into a positive for the Cavs. These instances have a tendency to bring teams together. The Cavaliers regard themselves as a tightly knit group already, but a moment like this, especially when it involves the best player on the team, can strengthen that bond. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if the Cavs are better moving forward, partially because of Thursday night.
“Everybody's happy that Don did protect himself and everybody rallied behind him as well,” Garland said. “So, it was good team camaraderie right there.”
All-Star Snub
Garland was not named an Eastern Conference All-Star when the reserves were named on Thursday night. His primary matchup was Ja Morant, a player who was deservingly named an All-Star in the Western Conference prior to the game."
Yeah, I will use it as motivation after this, after the All-Star break," Garland said. "But I mean, it’s whatever. We got other games to play. We got somewhere we want to get to, trying to get to the playoffs. The All-Stars will come."
On a night where Mitchell wasn’t having his best game prior to his ejection, the Cavs needed Garland to be at his best, and he was. Garland was terrific from the start, with 14 points in the first quarter.
“I thought he was brilliant,” Bickerstaff said. “He knew how important this game was to us and what we needed from him and he set the tone early. That's what leaders do. He went out, he showed his guys where his mindset was and like they've done all year, they followed his lead.”
Garland finished the night with 32 points and 11 assists for his third game of the season with at least 30 points and 10 assists. Even if he wasn’t named to the All-Star team on Thursday, he played like an All-Star.
Garland was the best player on the floor on a night when his team sorely needed it. The Cavs needed a win in the worst way after Tuesday’s loss in Miami and Bickerstaff’s message of positivity on Wednesday. Garland being the guy to step up and lead the team in a big moment isn’t something that should be taken lightly.
Rubio’s Rise
When Rubio returned to the floor in the middle of January, he didn’t feel as close to 100 percent as he initially thought, he told the media on Wednesday. On Thursday night he had one of his best performances since stepping back on the court for game action following a torn ACL suffered last December.
His box score numbers won’t blow anyone away. He finished the night playing 21 minutes and scoring 13 points with four assists. But the moments Rubio contributed in were big ones and the feel for game he has is among the best in the league. That was on display on Thursday night.
“He's got that Ricky magic,” Bickerstaff said. “When he gets going and he finds that rhythm he can just make play after play that impacts the game. He loves to do it in the biggest and brightest moments. I think that's the thing about Ricky that stands out the most. When the moment is that brightest, that's when he shines the most.”
As Rubio finds his footing there are going to be nights when the Cavs don’t necessarily look better with him on the floor. That’s going to be part of the process. But when the games for the Cavs really start to count later in the year, Rubio should be able to provide an impact on the game similar to the way he did on Thursday night against the Grizzlies.
