Home NBA Darius Garland wills handicapped Cavs with 51-point activity in a loss vs...

Darius Garland wills handicapped Cavs with 51-point activity in a loss vs T-Wolves, gains recognition from teammates

Despite having a shorthanded unit at his side, Darius Garland took the daunting job of taking the Cleveland Cavaliers on his broad shoulders over the jaws of an improbable defeat.

Undeflected by fear and lack of enthusiasm with Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, and Dean Wade out, Garland dared to embrace the hard carry, as he dropped the first 50-point display of this season.

Sporting a career-best 51 markers, Garland almost ignited the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse with frenzy, as he led the Cavs to a late-game blitz that could have stunned the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have led by as much as 24 points.

The comeback failed to materialize, 129-124, but the All-star guard’s efforts won’t blur from the eyes of his teammates.

“He was phenomenal,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of Garland, via Chris Fedor of cleveland.com. “He kept competing. We were sluggish to start with and could’ve very easily laid down early, but he kept getting after it and tried to will us to a win.”

Garland’s Sunday performance marks the first time that a Cavalier recorded a 50-point output since 2017, wherein LeBron James went off with his own. With 10 triples that pushed his scoring flame, he just became the 17th player in league history to have at least 50 markers and 10 long bombs, with him being the youngest.

“Special. That’s what Darius is capable of,” Love said. “He shot the ball extremely well from 3 and got to his spots and kept us right there in the game. That gave us a chance at the end and that’s all you can ask for. An incredible performance. A masterclass by Darius. We’re hoping for many more of those out of him. Just beautiful.”

“Just tried to fight,” Garland said about Cleveland’s attempt to make a come-from-behind win over Minnesota. “That was our team mentality, just to fight back. We got ourselves into a hole in the first quarter and we were just trying to dig deep and get back into the game.

“That’s what we did. Our team is just set on trying to grind everything out, play 48 minutes really hard, and see what the outcome is, so when we fight back, we thought we had a chance and thought we could get over that hump, but we fell a little bit short tonight.”

Upon the recent loss, the Cavs have now dropped to 8-5 card, losing four of their last five games. As such, they’ll regroup for a three-day rest and look to bounce back as they face the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.

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