After the Cavaliers got Mitchell in the new season, the team's strength has increased rapidly, and they have also played a very bright performance, winning 8 consecutive games, once ranking 2nd in the East with 8-1! But in the next three games, the Cavaliers lost to the Clippers, Kings, and Warriors, swallowing a three-game losing streak.
Three consecutive losses have dropped the Cavaliers to fourth place in the East, while also reflecting the team's shortcomings, which has seriously damaged the team's self-confidence, and they desperately need a win to get through the predicament.
After a three-game losing streak, the Cavaliers faced the challenge of the Timberwolves, who are not strong, ranked third from bottom in the West, and suffered three consecutive losses, even if the Cavaliers' Mitchell and Allen are absent, they have a chance to win this game at home.
The overall strength of the Timberwolves is not weak, but their performance is indeed very poor, and this game against the remaining Cavaliers is also a chance for them to end their losing streak! Sure enough, the Cavaliers without Mitchell and Allen have seen a sharp decline in backcourt offense, interior attack and defense, which also makes the Timberwolves perform extremely well, scoring consecutive points on the offensive end, especially Russell, who previously performed poorly, was full of fire in the first quarter, 6 of 6, including 3 3-pointers, and scored 15 points in a single quarter to help the Timberwolves take the lead! After that, the Cavaliers' offense stagnated again, and the Timberwolves were even more unceremonious, directly playing a 21-4 offensive frenzy, and the point difference went straight to 24 points, and the game was already a bit of a flower.
Seeing that the game became more and more passive, the Cavaliers finally found their hands, hit 3 points from the outside, and the team also stopped the decline, chasing the difference to 17 points at halftime, and still retained a trace of suspense of the game.
Entering the second half, the Timberwolves finally recovered their feelings, the inside and outside lines blossomed, Towns, Gobert, Russell hit the inside to score points, although the Cavaliers desperately resisted, but the huge gap inside, or let the Timberwolves regain control of the initiative on the court, and the point difference came to more than 20 points again.
With 12 minutes left, the difference was as high as 20 points, and the Cavaliers basically had no chance! But in a desperate situation, the Cavaliers did not give up, especially Garland, successfully stood up, hit 3 points in a row from the outside, broke through unstoppable, scored wantonly on the court, chased the difference to only 2 points in one breath, and saw the opportunity to reverse! At the critical moment, Prince grabbed the front court rebound, sent a key steal, and sealed the victory for the Timberwolves through a free throw, Garland cut 27 points in the final quarter, or helplessly lost 124-129.
5 points to lose, the Cavaliers lost a pity, if they are given a little more time, there is definitely a good chance to complete the big comeback, but this is the game, in a limited time to divide the winner and lose, there is no chance to start over.
Garland is definitely the Cavaliers' brightest player, shooting 16 of 31 from the field, including 10 of 15 three-pointers, 51 points and 6 assists, which is also the third player in Cavaliers history to cut 50+.
In the history of the Cavaliers, only 2 people have completed 50+ before, namely James, Irving, Garland also became the 3rd, becoming a player on par with James and Irving, and he hit 10 3-pointers in a single game, tied with Miles for the 1st in team history, and scored 27 points in the final quarter, second only to Love's 34 points, which is the team's 2nd high score in a single quarter! It can be said that although the Cavaliers lost this game, Garland played his own battle and wrote a new career single-game scoring high.
Garland's performance is beyond words, and he has made a name for himself, but even with such a good performance, the boss of the Cavaliers is not him, but Mitchell.
Garland is a star cultivated by the Cavaliers, entered the All-Star, and also got a 194 million contract, and his personal performance is also very good! However, Garland's stability and personal absolute strength are still not comparable to Mitchell, such as the team's first 3 losses, if not Garland's key moments to disrupt, the winners are the Cavaliers.
In addition, compared to Garland, Mitchell is more explosive, averaging 31.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.6 blocks per game this season, shooting as high as 51.3%, and also saving the team at key moments many times, he deserves the position of team leader.
For Garland and the Cavaliers, Mitchell is more suitable to be the boss, and the team should also establish the first core point early, if it is still as difficult to distinguish between priorities as it is now, the Cavaliers' prospects this season are also limited.