It wasn't too long ago that Sam Merrill was playing in the Wolstein Center as a member of the Charge , the Cavaliers' G League team.
But now he's earned his ticket to the NBA. Now he's getting more minutes because of Cavs starters Darius Garland and Evan Mobley being out for the foreseeable future .
And Monday night, it was Merrill — not Donovan Mitchell , not Max Strus — who hit the shot that sealed the deal for the Cavs in an overtime win over the Houston Rockets .
Different building. Different level. Different stakes. But it's the same shot to Merrill. It's just another 3.
"Just work and experience," Merrill said afterward. "I haven't been in that moment a lot in the NBA obviously, but in college I had to hit a lot of big shots, but at the same time [it's] just another shot for me. I didn't really think of that one as anything different than one in the first or second quarter. That's kind of how I try to approach things."
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Merrill ended the night with a career-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting. During the two previous seasons combined entering 2023-24, he had registered not many more than 100 minutes on an NBA floor. He finished with nearly a quarter of that (24) alone Monday night.
Perhaps many in the building were surprised to see it was Merrill who took a shot of that magnitude and in that situation. Perhaps many of them were surprised to even see Merrill on the floor to start overtime. But in terms of having the confidence that he'd knock down that shot?
Merrill knew it. Mitchell knew it. The Cavs knew it.
"I wish ya'll were at practice. Sometimes it's hard for the red team to get a stop 'cause he's on the floor," Mitchell said. "This is what he does. This is who he is."
Mitchell had some experience seeing Merrill play a few years ago, along with Georges Niang . They've known for a while what Merrill is capable of as he patiently waited for the right opportunity.
Then the entire Cavs locker room became aware of it from practicing with him. Mitchell said there times when they'd be working on some defensive play and needed to finish with a stop, and Merrill would hit the shot anyway and force them all to do it again. They'd just laugh.
And now, after Monday night's 19-point performance, Cavs fans know it, too.
"Guts, grit, professionalism," said Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff of Merrill. "Just a guy who always put himself in position that if his number's called, he's gonna be ready to go. And I think he showed that tonight."
It's the type of performance from a role player the Cavs will occasionally need with both Garland and Mobley out for at least the next month (with Mobley likely being out closer to two months). Every team needs someone off the bench to "pop" for a big night here and there. But perhaps no contender will benefit from a night like Merrill's as much as the Cavs, at least until Garland and Mobley return.
It also the cultivation of a lot of preparation and work put into an uncertain outcome on nightly basis. Merrill often doesn't know how much, if at all, he'll play. Game script, matchups, injuries and anything else can alter plans. Even when he was in the G League, he kept thinking a call might be coming after a good game, but more often than not it didn't — at least at the time.
"I've always felt like I was good enough and, I mean, this is just one game," Merrill said. "There's still so much to do, but the G League, it is tough, I mean, just because there's ups and downs and you're always hoping that call's going to come."
"There were certainly some difficult times, but my confidence never wavered and, if anything, the way I played in the G League gave me more confidence that I could do this at this level."
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Cavaliers backup Sam Merrill scores career-high 19 points
