The Cleveland Cavaliers learned a valuable lesson Friday night as they beat the San Antonio Spurs on the road, 114-109. While the Spurs are a struggling team that entered the game with a 15-26 record, it was the manner in which the Cavs won that made it so important.
One of the focuses of the Cavs this season is learning how to close out games and get a victory. For reference of how close the game Friday was, it was a one-possession game with five seconds left on the clock.
Garland put up 32 points, eight assists four rebounds a block and a steal—following up his last game on Wednesday where he recorded his first career triple-double with another impressive outing. Also helping the Cavs offensively was Jarrett Allen, who put up 17 points with 16 rebounds as well as Evan Mobley with 15 points and six rebounds. Cedi Osman assisted off the bench with 14 points of his own."I thought there were things we could have done better offensively down that stretch," Bickerstaff said, but added that the guys stepped up on defense in a big way, helping to seal the win.
"Every single game there is a certain learning experience we can take away from the game," Allen said."We're taking things from games where we need to learn something and applying it to our next one."