CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers will finally welcomed back Darius Garland , and they registered a win with their first healthy starting lineup in more than six weeks.
After Evan Mobley made his return in Monday's win over the Los Angeles Clippers , Garland returned and the Cavs took down the Detroit Pistons 128-121. Both players were out roughly six weeks. In that time, the Cavs discovered a silver lining of sorts , as an overhauled offensive philosophy and re-commitment to defense spurred a 14-4 run without Garland and Mobley in the lineup. In doing so, coach J.B. Bickerstaff passed a difficult test .
Center Jarrett Allen , who has been making his All-Star case lately , was listed as questionable with an illness but was in the starting lineup.
Tipoff occurred shortly after 7 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Below are updates from throughout the game.
The Cavs are now 16-4 in their last 20 games.
Behind a 45-point game from No. 45 Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs took down the Pistons in Darius Garland 's return. Garland finished with 19 points in 21 minutes.
Isaac Okoro added 14 points and four steals.
Donovan Mitchell hit two free throws to put the Cavs on top 124-118, and did so while receiving MVP! MVP! chants from the home crowd. He now has 41 points for his fourth 40-point game this season.
He was also just poked in the eye as he returned to the free throw line yet again.
Caris LeVert hit two free throws and Jarrett Allen followed with a layup, accompanied by some nice footwork in the paint, and the Cavs have a 122-118 lead with 1:30 to go. Allen now has 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Isaac Okoro recently garnered a lot of praise from teammates for his defense. Tonight, he quietly has 14 points and he just followed a missed Donovan Mitchell 3 with a rebound and a layup that tied it up 118-118 with three minutes to go.
Donovan Mitchell is almost playing 1 on 5 right now. He's drilled a couple of 3s and the Cavs have crawled back to tie it 116-116 with 3:43 left in the fourth quarter.
And Mitchell now has 39 points tonight to go with seven assists, four rebounds and two steals.
The Pistons are firing on all cylinders (pun intended). They've hit seven of their first 10 attempts in the fourth quarter and are now shooting 59 percent tonight. The Pistons have had a terrible season but have been scrappy lately, and everything is falling now.
The momentum does not reside with the home team at the moment. Once again, Gallinari is having a vintage Gallinari night, now with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
The Pistons have rallied back and tied it 98-98 with 9:46 left in the fourth quarter, prompting J.B. Bickerstaff to call a timeout to try to regroup.
Max Strus is having a rare off night, just 1-of-5 from the floor for two points.
Here are updates from the third quarter .
It wasn't a 3-pointer, but you'll never guess who added a bucket in the closing seconds of the quarter: once again, Caris LeVert. His layup with 2.6 seconds left up the Cavs up 96-91 entering the final 12 minutes.
Donovan Mitchell has a game-high 25 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Darius Garland has 19 points in 16 minutes. He stands a good chance of playing roughly half of the fourth quarter, or maybe a bit less, depending on how the game unfolds.
For the Pistons, Gallinari , Bogdanovic and Ivey have all been effective with 16, 14 and 14 points respectively.
Donovan Mitchell hit a 3, and then as the Pistons tried to push the tempo up the floor, Mitchell went for the steal along the sideline. He was able to knock it out of bounds but couldn't stop his momentum, and Mitchell leaped over the first row of seats before being stopped by a divider. He was guided back onto the floor.
The Cavs are leading the Pistons 90-85 with 3:00 left in the third quarter.
Cavs center Jarrett Allen has secured his 16th consecutive double-double with a rebound on an air ball in the third quarter, giving him 10 points and 10 rebounds tonight. That extends his own franchise record.
Here are updates from the first half.
The Cavs will carry a 64-57 lead over the Pistons into halftime.
Donovan Mitchell has a team-high 16 points with four assists on 5-of-10 shooting. Darius Garland has 12 points in 11 minutes, putting him right on pace for the 20-24 minutes for which Bickerstaff had him slated.
Sam Merrill has 11 points and is 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
Jarrett Allen, who was questionable with an illness, is on pace to extend his franchise record for consecutive double-doubles. At the half, he has six points and nine rebounds. Allen entered tonight with 15 consecutive double-doubles dating back to Dec. 23.
For the Pistons, Danilo Gallinari has a team-high 11 points and Jaden Ivey has 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor.
The Cavs probably don't ever want to enter a situation where Sam Merrill is forced into playing heavy minutes, but he's filled his role off the bench well since being called up from the G League. Tonight, he's a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range to give him nine points and a 53-47 Cavs lead.
And with that 3-pointer, Merrill has the second-most 3s by a Cavs bench player (44) in a single month in franchise history, trailing only Kevin Love , who hit 47 in December of 2021.
Danilo Gallinari, who still feels like he's straight out of the NBA Live 2010 video game, is actually giving the Cavs some trouble in 2024. He's got a team-high 11 points and his hit all three of his 3-point attempts.
Darius Garland now has a team-high 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting his return to the floor. He has seemingly had little trouble fitting into this new-look Cavs offense and has hit the ground running.
Below are updates from the first quarter
Caris LeVert has had the odd knack of hitting 3s near the end of quarters lately and did it again. His 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the first quarter gave the Cavs a 30-23 after the first quarter.
Mitchell and Garland have led the way with nine and eight points, respectively. Max Strus, who has been a massively important addition within the Cavs starting lineup this season, has been strangely absent so far tonight with zero points on only one shot attempt.
The Cavs shot 48 percent (12-25) from the field in the first 12 minutes.
Donovan Mitchell just tried a baby hook shot. It didn't go in, but it looked good, and Mitchell made up for it a few seconds later with a steal and a layup in transition to extend the Cavs' lead over the Pistons to 23-15.
He has a game-high nine points to go with three assists, a rebound, a block and a steal.
Darius Garland is now on the bench. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game that Garland would likely be limited to 20-24 minutes tonight.
Suddenly, Garland is everywhere. After a Donovan Mitchell 3-pointer tied it 15-15, Garland stole the Pistons' in-bounds pass and added a layup to put the Cavs up 17-15. He nearly stole a second in-bounds pass as well while Detroit was seemingly asleep at the wheel.
Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said pregame that the Cavs just about had to calm Garland down while he was making his way back. He's making up for lost time early on, with eight points in six minutes on the floor.
Darius Garland missed his first two 3-point attempts of the night, but he buried the third, and did so while drawing a foul. Garland made the ensuing free throw to make it a four-point play, which tied it 12-12.
Garland is 2-for-4 from the floor with a game-high six points with 7:30 left in the first quarter.
Below is some pregame information.
Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham , Jaden Ivey, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Muscala , Jalen Duren
Cleveland Cavaliers:Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
For the Cavs, Allen is listed as questionable with an illness. Bickerstaff noted before Wednesday's game that if Allen is out, he'd expect Damian Jones to see an increase in minutes, among others.
Backup point guard Ty Jerome remains out after recently undergoing right ankle surgery.
Backup forward Tristan Thompson will miss his fourth consecutive game as part of his 25-game suspension for failing a drug test related to performance-enhancing drugs.
For Detroit, guard Cade Cunningham (knee) is probable and Isaiah Stewart (ankle) is out.
The game will be televised locally on Bally Sports Ohio and broadcast on the radio via WTAM (1100-AM), WMMS (100.7-FM) and WNZN (89.1-FM).
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs extend home winning streak vs. Pistons in Garland's return
