CLEVELAND, OH — Chauncey Billups can see it.
Fans may not see it, or even some players may not, but the great players do.
Billups, 2004 NBA champion and head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, sees Darius Garland’s unique ability to adapt and control the game. His vision, his consciousness, his feeling.
“Unbelievable,” said Billups. “I’m a huge fan of Darius. His sense of the game is very underrated. Clearly, he can make shots. He has a cunning handle and is all you need in a floater.” Has a shot, he can do it all.
“But I think his feeling is elite. Most people don’t talk about it and you honestly don’t get it either. But I think he’s a talented young player.” I’m saying.”
These were Billups’ comments an hour before his Blazers faced off. cavaliers Game Cleveland Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Easy win 114-96.
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Garland started one of six games, coming off the previous game in which he made the first six shots. But sour shooting didn’t stop him from reeling in his teammates. , found Jarrett Allen three times.
“He’s a good reader,” Billups said after the game. “He controls their tempo well. He’s playing really good pace and you can’t get him to speed up because of his steering wheel and you can’t put pressure on him.He’s pretty smart.
Garland overcame his short-shooting woes by starting the second quarter with 10 of Cleveland’s first 12 points.
The All-Star point guard finished with 24 points and 12 assists for his third double-double of the season.
On the Cavaliers defense
Cleveland yielded defensively, aided by a strong attacking first half from Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen and led by a tough play from Lamar Stevens. Portland tallied his 13 turnovers in the first half and was dismissed in multiple attempts to close the lead.
“I didn’t like the decision making in the game,” said Billups. “I thought their physicals really hurt us on half court. Blowing up screens and locking screens. I thought the bullying coverage affected our decision-making and the quality of our shots.” We kept fighting and we kept pushing forward, but it was too much.”
Portland’s Jerami Grant scored 21 points in the first half, but in addition to self-inflicted injury, the clamp reinforced as he remained scoreless for the rest of the night.
Cleveland held Portland to just 21 points on 7-of-20 shooting (35%) in the final quarter.
The Cavaliers entered the night ranked third with a 107.9 ERA. 4 of their last 5 games have been under 103 points, and 2 of their last 4 games have been under 97 points.
On Donovan Mitchell’s withdrawal from the Western Conference
Mitchell made a name for himself in Utah, but most Western Conference coaches are happy he’s playing in the East now. Add Billups, his second-year head coach, to that list. His team has three All-Stars this season and he can only see one.
“I’m very happy,” Billups said jokingly. “He was happy with him because he knew when trades were going down.
“I was like, ‘Goodbye, see you later, man.’ It’s nice to see him succeed and I’m not at all surprised. JB (Bickerstaff) was one of the better coaches in the league and worked flawlessly.”
Mitchell finished with a game-high 34 points, including a 6-of-10 from a 3-point range. Billups is just one of the latest coaches to see the Garland-Mitchell combo for the first time.
“He’s done it well,” Billups said. spent the night
Allen added 24 points and 13 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season, and Jusuf Nurkic led the Trail Blazers with 22 points and 6 rebounds.
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