CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers all but punted this game after not getting back from Miami until late this morning. They rested four of the five starters from last night’s game (Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Jarrett Allen, Peyton Watson) rather than risk injury on the second night of a back-to-back. But sometimes, the receiving team muffs a punt.
The Dallas Mavericks — who weren’t resting their starters — took their eye off the ball. Cleveland took advantage, led by a triple-double from Tyrese
Proctor to ruin Kyrie Irving’s homecoming and defeat Dallas 127-117.
Three stars of the game
First star: Tyrese Proctor
24 points on 10-of-19 shooting, 11 rebounds, 10 assists
Proctor has been a revelation over the last week. He backed up an impressive performance in Miami — albeit in a supporting role — with a dominant on-ball performance against the Mavericks.
This was a different outing than what we’ve seen from Proctor in the past. Instead of being mostly an off-ball shooter, he thrived at creating his own shots. Only one of his 10 field-goal makes was assisted. This included going 5-for-8 on off-the-dribble jumpers.
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Scoring wasn’t the only thing Proctor provided. He was the primary initiator of the offense, as evidenced by his 10 assists. Some of these led to direct baskets at the rim for Thomas Bryant out of the pick-and-roll. Overall, six of his assists went to baskets at the rim. He also sprayed the ball to outside shooters and swung the ball on the perimeter, leading to three assists on triples.
Proctor also helped as a defender and rebounder. Kenny Atkinson often talks about how the guards need to be adequate rebounders as well. Proctor was that in a complete all-around performance.
Proctor has been asked to fit into a very specific role this season with the Cavs. He’s done that well, but nights like this show that he’s capable of more.
Second star: Kyrie Irving
34 points on 11-of-25 shooting, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals
Irving’s 20 second-quarter points got the Mavs back into this game. He still can be a one-man offense for extended stretches and completely take over games. This was another impressive scoring performance from someone who’s had more than his fair share in this building.
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Third star: Mario Hezonja
22 points on 9-of-12 shooting, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
Hezonja made a strong argument for why he deserves more minutes than he’s been getting in recent games. He processes the game at a high level. Hezonja forced mismatches offensively, and then read how the defense was going to react and consistently made the right play out of it.
Duds of the game
Cleveland’s resting starters
0 minutes, 0 points, 0 assists, 0 rebounds, 0 steals
Back-to-backs are difficult, especially when travel plans are thrown off as drastically as they were around the country yesterday. There is sound logic to err on the side of caution in a situation like this. What’s the point of risking an injury for a game that will matter very little in the spring? At the same time, saying that the game should be canceled because of an inconvenience like this is a bad look.
On top of that, the Cavs played some of their most inspiring basketball of the early season on Saturday night without six of the top eight players in their rotation. That is good for the guys who played, but a clear indictment of what we’ve seen from the regulars.
Atkinson was asked about rebounding before the game since it’s been a consistent issue with the starting group. He gave a long-winded answer that could’ve been summed up by saying there’s only so much coaching can do. “I always tell the coaches, it’s 50% on us. It’s got to transfer — the message has to get through.”
This message, and many others about how they want to play basketball on both ends, is getting through — just not to the guys who will ultimately determine wins and losses in the spring.
Cavalier who deserves a shoutout
Norchad Omier
13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Omier made the most of his first real rotation minutes for the Cavs. He was impactful offensively with his ability to finish inside and hit a corner three as well. Defensively, he used his wide frame to play backup five when Thomas Bryant wasn’t out there.
The Cavs won the minutes Omier played by 11. Getting quality play like this from a two-way big went a long way toward stealing the victory.
Play of the game
Irving received a loud ovation when he was introduced as a starter, and an even louder one when they played a video tribute for his contribution to the 2016 championship team.
Once a champion, always a champion.
Quote of the day
“You know, 52 years is a long, long period of time waiting for a championship, and we did it. And I think that’s one of the hardest championship — I think. I’m not gonna say it is, I said Ithink personally. I think it’s one of the hardest championships ever in NBA history that we got to accomplish.”
– Kyrie Irving on the 2016 championship
Stat of the game
The Cavs grabbed 57% of available rebounds (92nd percentile).
The Cavaliers who were available on Saturday showed that they’re capable of hearing the message from the coaching staff and applying it on the court.
Main takeaway from this game: The Cavs have some encouraging young players
I wrote about this in yesterday’s deep dive from the Miami Heat loss: The Cavs have quietly turned over their supporting cast. Their younger bench players are far more versatile than the specialists we’ve seen in previous seasons.
The trio of Tyrese Proctor, Meleek Thomas, and Jaylon Tyson have very defined roles when the starters are out there. They’ve mostly performed well in those situations and have shown glimpses of being able to do more. On Saturday, we saw that they can scale their games up when called upon.
Cleveland needed that trio to be the offensive initiators given who was out, and they did that. The ball was moving quickly around the perimeter, with each being able to attack off the dribble when needed. This resulted in the trio all scoring 18 points or more against a Mavs team actually playing their starters.
This performance on its own doesn’t necessarily mean much. It’s not uncommon to see NBA teams let up and lose when their opponent is missing half of their rotation. However, this game didn’t just come out of the blue; it was a continuation of what we’ve been seeing pretty consistently for the last week or so — specifically from Proctor and Thomas.
The Cavs are at a weird crossroads. How they’ve been playing with their star players has led to inconsistent results. We’ve seen some high highs, but some even lower lows. Something needs to change if they’re going to reach the heights they have the potential to reach.
Turning the reins over to the young players isn’t the answer to their problems. But embracing the style of play that this group has embraced — and the one that all the Cavs did during the 2024-25 season — could be a solution.
