The Cleveland Cavaliers may have come up short against the Minnesota Timberwolves, 129-124, but that wasn’t from a lack of effort. All-Star guard Darius Garland spent Sunday night lighting up the scoreboard with a career-high 51 points and six assists on 16-31 shooting from the field (10-15 from beyond the arc).
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 14, 2022
Garland’s career-best outing was briefly the season-high across the League before Joel Embiid erupted and dropped a career-high 59 points against the Utah Jazz. Garland is the fourth player in Cavs history to score at least 50 points, joining LeBron James (nine times), Kyrie Irving (twice), and Walt Wesley (once) on the exclusive list. Cleveland’s single-game scoring record is 57 points, shared by James and Irving.
Garland was four points shy of tying the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse mark held by Irving and James Harden.
“I didn’t even know I had 50 until I went to the bench,” Garland said, per ESPN. “No one told me, and I wasn’t paying attention to anything except trying to win the game. That’s the great thing about this group of guys. No one cares about individual numbers. It’s all about the team.”
Garland played a significant role in Cleveland even being competitive. The Cavs were down 99-75 late in the third quarter before DG had a fourth quarter for the ages.
The fourth-year guard scored 27 points in the final frame, routinely slicing and dicing offense (4/6 from the free-throw line) and stretching (six made triples) Minnesota’s defense to its utter limit.
“Incredible performance, master class by Darius, and we’re hoping for many more of those out of him,” teammate Kevin Love said. “That was just beautiful. He got to his spots, kept us right there, and gave us a chance at the end, and that’s all you can ask.”
27 points in the final 12 minutes.@dariusgarland22 scored the most points in a 4th quarter by a single player in franchise history. #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/QsdBgw9qaC
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 14, 2022
Cleveland ultimately lost its fourth game in a row, but it comes with the caveat of missing Donovan Mitchell (sore ankle) and Jarrett Allen (sprained ankle) from their lineup. The Cavs will look to break their losing streak on Wednesday when they take on the Bucks at Milwaukee.
