Key: Homestand Finale
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The Wine & Gold wrap up their five-game homestand – and continue winding down the 2020-21 schedule – when they welcome Damian Lillard and the Blazers to town on Wednesday night.
The Cavaliers went toe-to-toe with the West’s top team, mounting a late comeback in regulation behind rookie Isaac Okoro’s monster night before getting ambushed in overtime. Chris Paul and Devin Booker had big nights for the Suns in a contest that featured 15 ties and 10 lead-changes.
The Blazers come to town playing the final contest of a six-game road trip before heading home for four of their final six. Portland, locked in a Western Conference dogfight with the Lakers and Mavericks, won its first four games on the nine-day roadie before falling on Monday night in Atlanta. Lillard had another big night and Carmelo Anthony worked his way into the NBA’s all-time scoring list’s top 10.
The Wine & Gold won their last meeting against Portland at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse back in November 2019, but the Blazers took the lone meeting this year – dropping a one-sided decision in early February at the Moda Center.
Key: Ice, Ice, Baby
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In that first meeting with Portland back on February 12, rookie Isaac Okoro finished with zero points in 27 minutes, with two boards, one assist and one steal. He will not finish with that stat line on Wednesday.
Darius Garland wasn’t the only young Cavalier to start finding his rhythm in April. Their most recent top pick has also begun figuring things out offensively after enduring a baptism-by-fire on the defensive end all season long.
In Tuesday night’s thriller against Phoenix, the rugged rook registered his sixth straight game of double-figure scoring – and he did it with style. In a game-high 47 minutes of work, Okoro led both teams with a career-best 32 points, going 10-for-16 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from deep and a perfect 9-of-9 from the stripe, adding six assists, three boards and a steal.
Equally noteworthy was Okoro’s assertiveness on that end in a late, game-deciding situation – scoring Cleveland’s final five points of regulation.
The aforementioned baptism-by-fire on the defensive end will continue on Wednesday night, and he’ll be one of many attempting to slow down six-time All-Star, Damian Lillard.
The league’s sixth-leading scorer has been consistently great all season long, and again over the last three games – averaging 30.3 points and 10.0 assists over that stretch.
Lillard actually had one of his quieter nights of the season in the February matchup with Cleveland – finishing with 20 points, going 0-for-6 from three-point range, but leading both teams with nine assists.
Key: Canton Made
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The Blazers dynamic duo will keep Cleveland busy defensively, but they’ll also have to be on their toes trying to contain Collin Sexton.
The Young Bull continued his offensive roll on Tuesday night – topping the 20-point mark in his 15th straight game, finishing with 29 points on 11-of-24 shooting, adding seven boards and a team-best seven assists. Over that stretch, the Cavs leading scorer is averaging 25.9 points on 49 percent shooting.
Sexton led Cleveland with 25 points in the earlier meeting this year in Portland – going 8-of-16 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the stripe and handing out a team-high five assists.
On Wednesday, Sexton will have to be sharp on both ends – locking horns with Canton native, C.J. McCollum.
The eighth-year man from Lehigh has had some big games against the Wine & Gold, but was out with an injury in the previous meeting. In a 2019 return to Northeast Ohio, McCollum went off for 35 points on 12-for-18 shooting, including 7-of-8 from long-range.
McCollum finished with 20 points in Portland’s recent loss in Atlanta, but went for 33 in the previous evening’s win in Boston – going 12-of-20 from the floor, drilling four triples in the process.