It appears that Georges Niang‘s passionate speech worked. A post-game speech by Niang after the OKC lost in early November was reported on this week and has been credited for the Cavs turnaround. Jarrett Allen told the media, “It’s what we needed to hear at the time. Everybody needs a kick in the butt now and then. He’s the ultimate glue guy.” Since that speech, the Wine & Gold have gone 10-4, including a strong 48-minute 111-99 win against the Miami Heat.
In Miami, the Cavs fought back from a tepid 1st Quarter with excellent 2nd and 3rd Quarters. JB trusted his bench and Craig Porter Jr, Tristan Thompson, and Sam Merrill rewarded Coach for his decision. The bench played some inspiring minutes in the 2nd Quarter to get the Cavs back into a winning position. Then, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell took over in the 3rd Quarter with dagger after dagger to pace the Cavs to victory.
Let’s hope that Niang won’t have to give another speech in the future, but until then let’s recap the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the week.
The Good
Garland Assist/ Turnover Ratio: For the two games this week DG had 15 Assists to only 2 Turnovers (including a 9 assist, ZERO turnover game vs Magic!). Maybe it was the media pestering Darius and Coach Bickerstaff, or a couple of days of practice to work on his game, either way, the results are GOOD. The Cavs will need their All-Star point guard to continue this excellent play going forward.
The Bad
Next week, the Cavs will play 4 games in 6 days. The week starts Monday in Orlando and then follows the next night in Boston. The Cavs get to stay in their Boston hotel for a couple more nights because they face the Celtics again on Thursday on NBA TV. The Wine & Gold will cap off their week at home versus the Atlanta Hawks again on NBA TV. Based on how last week went, the more games the better for the Cavs to stack some wins up and climb up in the standings.
The Ugly
Donovan Mitchell went on the ‘Run Your Race’ podcast and told Theo Pinson about how he lived at home while recovering in the early days of COVID. Mitchell said after contracting COVID he couldn’t go anywhere, so he had to stay quarantined in his mom’s basement for 6 weeks. I can’t imagine being the first high-profile professional athlete (along with Rudy Gobert) to have COVID and how confusing and frustrating it was to be locked away from everyone for so long. I can only imagine it was not a great time for Spida’s mental health.
Hopefully, Donovan’s mental health is in a better place now, we know that Cavs fans’ mental health is doing well after a pretty good week.
