Talking About Mitchell’s Amazing Performance

In the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first season, Walt Wesley scored 50 points in a game against the Cincinnati Royals on February 19, 1971. That record held for 34 years, until LeBron James put up 56 vs. Toronto in March 2005.

The 50 point barrier has only been accomplished 15 times in franchise history and only five players have done it. James did it 10 times, Kyrie Irving did it twice, and the 57 points he put up on March 12, 2015 established the club record, which was tied by James two years later.

Earlier this season, Darius Garland became the fourth player in Cleveland history to hit the 50 mark when he put in 51 against Minnesota.

It doesn’t happen often for a player wearing wine and gold.

And then we have what happened on Monday night.

Donovan Mitchell had a night for the ages, shattering the team record with a 71 point effort, tied with David Robinson for the eighth most in any game by an individual. There are only three players in NBA history to have recorded more points in a single game, and their names are Wilt Chamberlain (of course), Kobe Bryant, and David Thompson.

Yes, the game went into overtime, but Mitchell had 58 at the end of regulation, which would have broken the Cavalier team record anyway.

The Cavs were without two starters, Garland and Evan Mobley, so they needed someone to step up and provide scoring. Garland is after all, a 20 point per game scorer. In the first half, no one stepped up and the wine and gold were down by 18 at halftime, 65-47.

Mitchell started getting in going late in the second quarter. He had five points until he hit a three with 6:53 remaining in the second quarter and scored eight more before the end of the half.

Again, for the entire game, no one outside of Jarrett Allen, who was nine of ten from the floor, and Raul Neto, who took just three shots, hit more than half their attempts for Cleveland.

So, Mitchell took over, which is what stars do. He basically willed the Cavs to a win. And it wasn’t as though he was playing selfishly either. He dished out 11 assists. He also took just 34 shots to get the 71 points, as he went to the foul line 25 times, making 20. That helped.

He scored 24 points in the third quarter to cut the Cavs’ deficit to five heading into the 4th quarter. He added 18 more to force overtime. He needed to score that many points to get a win for Cleveland. That’s what made it even more special.

He took only two more shots in the same game as Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan, who scored 44 points taking 32 shots. And on the same night, Golden State’s Klay Thompson hoisted 39 shots, scoring 54 points and doled out just three helpers.

We were in attendance on March 28, 1990 when Michael Jordan scored 69 points against the Cavs, and he took 37 shots in that one, and he went to the line 23 times. After the game, Lenny Wilkens remarked that since Jordan fired the ball 37 times, he should’ve scored 69.

That game also went overtime.

By the way, in Bryant’s 81 point night in 2006? He shot 46 times in 42 minutes. Mitchell played 50 minutes in his history making night.

What an incredible game. They don’t come about that often. It was almost 17 years since Bryant’s outburst. We are sure everyone will remember it for years to come.

How Things Have Changed For Koby Altman.

It appears the Cleveland Cavaliers have settled on long term stability, and we hope it works out.

On Christmas Day, the team announced an extension for coach J.B. Bickerstaff, keeping him as the head coach through the 2026-27 season. That would give Bickerstaff seven full seasons at the helm, putting him up there with Bill Fitch (9 years), Lenny Wilkens (7), Mike Fratello (6) in terms of continuous service with the team.

Then on Tuesday it was announced that GM Koby Altman would have the added title of president of basketball operations, and his contract was extended though the 2027-28 season.

So, the Altman/Bickerstaff duo will be running the professional hoops team in Cleveland for the foreseeable future.

What a remarkable turnabout for Altman, who many (including us) questioned since LeBron James departed via free agency following the 2017-18 campaign.

There were back-to-back 19 win seasons (to be fair, the one year was shortened to 65 games by the pandemic), followed by 22 victories a year ago.

His first post-James draft pick, made with the precious lottery pick obtained in the Kyrie Irving trade, was Collin Sexton, a score first 6’2″ guard who isn’t a particularly good passer (some would say not willing either) and because of his height, is a defensive liability.

The next year, he doubled down on the guard position, taking another smallish guard in 6’1″ Darius Garland, and with other first round picks, he took swingman Dylan Windler, supposedly a good shooter, and the troubled Kevin Porter Jr., who has since departed.

The following first rounder was Isaac Okoro, another player with a limited skill set. He’s a very good defender, but offensively, he needs work.

Up until then, you can’t blame fans for wondering what was going on with the Cavaliers. Add in the head coaching chaos, bringing in long time college coach John Beilein, who was ill equipped to coach at the pro level.

Then during last season, Altman got involved in the big transaction involving James Harden going to Brooklyn, and came out with a young, talented big man in Jarrett Allen, and the Cavs signed the restricted free agent to a five-year deal.

After years of kind of ignoring size, Cleveland got some size. Allen averaged 13.2 points and 10 rebounds a game last year, and has upped that to 16.9 and 11 this season.

If he was playing, that move put Altman on a hot streak. Tayshaun Prince came over with Allen, and was used to get Ricky Rubio, a veteran playmaker the wine and gold needed, from Minnesota.

He used the 3rd overall pick to draft Evan Mobley (confession, we though he would be a project at this point) and made another trade to get Lauri Markkanen from Chicago. Bickerstaff likes size, and he decided to start the three seven footers together, giving Cleveland more size up front that most other NBA squads.

When Rubio went down, Altman almost immediately traded for Rajon Rondo, a very accomplished veteran to replace him.

There is no question Altman isn’t getting an extension and promotion without the moves made over the last year.

He also deserves credit for finding Bickerstaff and putting him in charge. Without a doubt, he’s a top candidate for coach of the year honors.

The Cavaliers are four years post-LBJ and they have made themselves into a playoff contender, not just a play-in tournament contender.

There is now pressure on Altman and Bickerstaff to keep progressing and get the Cavs back into championship contention.

It’s funny how things and perceptions can change in just a year. Koby Altman has become a rising executive in the NBA. That’s not something we would have said a year ago.

Cavs’ Team That Lost By “The Shot” Were No Doubt Good Enough To Win Title

With “The Last Dance” documentary currently airing on ESPN, those Cleveland Cavaliers teams of the late 1980’s have come under scrutiny. After all, it was the 1988-89 version of the team that fell victim to “The Shot”, Michael Jordan’s first playoff success (as a team).

When examining those teams, you have to remember there were really two iterations of that group. The first team featured the three rookies from the class of 1986-87: Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper, Mark Price, and John “Hot Rod” Williams, who was drafted the year before, but sat out due to a legal issue.

That quartet’s rookie season led to a 31-51 record as Harper, Williams, and Daugherty ranked one-two-three in minutes played, and were also the top three scorers. Price was a reserve to John Bagley, playing only 18 minutes.

It was only a two game improvement on the previous season.

The next year saw the Cavs improve to 42-40 and a first round playoff loss to the Bulls in five games (best of five). By the way, Jordan averaged 45.2 points per game in that series.

Larry Nance came to the team that year in a deal for Kevin Johnson, who was drafted in the first round over the summer. Price emerged as a player, making Johnson superfluous.

Think about this. The Cavs guards starting that season were Price, Harper, Johnson, Dell Curry, and Craig Ehlo. Pretty good, eh?

The following season, the Cavaliers were rolling right from the start. They won 24 of their first 29 games, and on February 28th, Cleveland whipped the defending Eastern Conference champion Pistons, 115-99, to raise their record to 42-12, five games ahead of Detroit in the Central Division.

That was also the game that Rick Mahorn elbowed Price in the head at midcourt, a terrible cheap shot. Price missed just two games, but the Cavs went just 15-13 the rest of the season.

Price also missed the first game of the playoffs vs. the Bulls with a hamstring injury, a game the Cavs lost 95-88.

Until Price was elbowed, which was out of frustration from the Cavs beat the Pistons for the third time in as many chances that season, Cleveland, not Detroit and certainly not the Bulls looked like the team coming out of the Eastern Conference.

In fact, as Jordan said during “The Last Dance”, the Cavaliers swept Chicago six games to none in the season series between the two teams.

The Price/Harper backcourt was a joy to watch, they played off each other beautifully, and the front court of Daugherty, Nance, and Williams was long and the latter two were capable of guarding small forwards.

Even though Hot Rod didn’t start, he was in there in the fourth quarter along with Nance.

That’s the group which was capable of winning a title, and we feel they would have had not something else gotten in the way the following season.

That little thing would be the worst trade in NBA history (in our opinion) when Cleveland dealt Harper AND two first round picks to the Clippers for the rights to Danny Ferry and Reggie Williams.

Trading one of your best players is one thing, but including two draft picks which could have been used as assets to improve the team was another. And that Ferry became at best a role player in the NBA was the death knoll.

Ironically, Harper blew out his knee after going to the Clippers.

The Cavs did get to the Eastern Conference finals in 1991-92 with the same group, sans Harper. It was Terrell Brandon’s rookie season. But Nance was 32 years old, and Williams was 29. They lost in six games to the Bulls.

The following season, the Cavaliers went 54-28 and lost in the Eastern semis to, you guessed it, Chicago in a four game sweep. Lenny Wilkens resigned after that season, and by the way, is still not happy about the Harper trade.

Mike Fratello took over and guided an injury plagued team (Daugherty played just 50 games, Nance 33 and neither played in the post-season) to the playoffs where they were swept again by Chicago.

By the next season, Daugherty and Nance were gone, and Price played only 48 games.

If the Harper trade would have never been made, would that group have been able to win an NBA title? We say yes. They were that could, and never really got a second chance.