The Cleveland Cavaliers made NBA history with their 128-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets. With the win, the Cavs became only the fourth team in NBA history to start the regular season 15-0. Despite the undefeated record, Cleveland has dealt with its fair share of injuries to start the season, proving that the hardest choices require the strongest wills.
Heading into the matchup, the Cavs were missing four players due to injury, including key roleplayers Max Strus (ankle), Sam Merrill (ankle), and Donovan Mitchell (rest). But by the time the game ended, Cleveland racked up three more injuries. Forwards Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade suffered left ankle sprains, and neither could return to the court for the Cavs.
More worryingly, superstar guard Darius Garland was spotted wearing a heating pad on his lower back. Thankfully, Garland could play through his ailing back – finishing the game with 25 points and 12 assists. Postgame Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson told ClutchPoints that Garland seemed like he was feeling fine. However, nagging back problems have plagued Garland before. So, while Garland may grit his teeth and play through any back soreness, the many injuries the Cavs have suffered in their historic win put a damper on things.
“I think we did the best we could with distributing minutes,” Atkinson said to ClutchPoints postgame. “You can’t fight the schedule. You just can’t. You’re going to end up being short-handed too much. So I’m a little disappointed we had a couple of guys go down tonight. But this is a tough league. This is a tough league physically. I don’t know if the fans can even grasp how hard it is.”
How the ailing Cavs are handling their injury woes
Up next for Cleveland is a highly-anticipated matchup with the Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, the Cavs will have a tough time matching up with Boston’s wing-heavy rotation if neither Wade nor Orkoro can go. They’ve already been without their starting small forward in Strus throughout the regular season. That leaves them with just Caris LeVert as the only player in the rotation who can comfortably step into that role.
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The sudden lack of wing depth against Charlotte forced Atkinson to get creative with Cleveland’s rotations and on-court tactics. The Cavs deployed three-guard lineups that featured Garland alongside Ty Jerome and Craig Porter Jr. and saw mixed results. There were also times Atkinson would deploy LeVert at small forward alongside Garland, Jerome, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, the foursome that started the game against the Hornets.
Cleveland made NBA history by being dynamic instead of static rotation-wise and leaning heavily on zone defense. However, against the Celtics, the Cavs won’t have as easy of a time. Sure, there’s a good chance that Mitchell plays against Boston. He only watched Cleveland’s win over Charlotte in street clothes because of a planned rest day. But with Wade spotted wearing a walking boot exiting the arena, along with the uncertainty of whether or not Okoro, Merrill, and possibly Garland are available, it throws a wrench in the red-hot start the Cavs have had to kick off the season.
The unfortunate part of the Cavs’ incredible start is that they’ve played the most games in the NBA, wearing down critical players across the roster. As Atkinson said, there’s only so much preparation he and his staff could have done to prevent this. However, with the injuries piling up, Cleveland can only control what it can control. Hopefully, Cleveland has enough hands on deck to weather the storm on the road against Boston since this will be their most significant test early into the season.
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