Cup of Cavs: Cleveland Cavaliers news and links for Wednesday, March 30

30.03.2022 13:00

Fear The Sword

Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

It’s time for the Cavs to go small.

Mornings are better when our Cavs play later that day. Hopefully they can hang around in their matchup against the Dallas Mavericks despite being without Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

The first sip

J.B. Bickerstaff and company have prided themselves on continuity this season. They have tried to keep player’s roles and the team identity the same throughout the litany of injuries. However, they haven’t been forced to play without either of their starting bigs often like they will be asked to tonight.

Given Dallas’s desire to go small, I think the best way to attack them might be to give in and go small as well. I would like to see the Cavs roll out Darius Garland, Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro, Lamar Stevens and Lauri Markkanen as the starting five instead of trying to force Kevin Love or Moses Brown into an awkward matchup against smaller, quicker opponents.

The idea of staying big is something I can get behind. However, it only works when you have capable bigs which the Cavs don’t really have at this time. Stevens’s ability as a screener on offense and his versatility on the defensive end make sense in a matchup where the Cavs will undoubtedly be switching and trying to force switches of their own all night.

Stevens has been playing well as of late. The former Nittany Lion is averaging 13.2 points on .591/.571/.714 shooting splits with 4.4 rebounds in his last five games.

The Mavs are playing some of their best basketball of the season as they’ve won seven of their last 10 games. Here’s to hoping they have tired legs after running over the LeBron-less Los Angeles Lakers last night. Although, with how little of a fight the Lakers put up, it’s probably just wishful thinking.

In case you missed it

Kyle Guy made his return to the Cleveland Charge last after spending the better part of the last three months with the Miami Heat.

Welcome back, @kylejguy #ChargeUp pic.twitter.com/3o8U76C7yf
— Cleveland Charge (@ChargeCLE) March 29, 2022

He understandably looked disappointed when asked about the transition back to Cleveland after yesterday’s game saying, “Just keeping a level head. This is part of it. You can’t be surprised when something like getting cut and moving to a different city happens. I’m just trying to be level headed and never get too high or too low.”

Read the full story from yesterday’s Charge game here.