On a night without center Jarrett Allen, who was out tonight with a non-COVID 19 illness, and fellow big man Evan Mobley going down in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter with a right elbow strain, the Cleveland Cavaliers knew that they would have to look to other means to get their scoring, and their answer? Cedi Osman and Ricky Rubio.
Rubio got the start tonight for Allen and scored a game-high 28 points, while shooting 4-8 from three-point. Osman, 26 years old, dropped 26 points in 31 minutes off the bench for the Cavs and helped add a scoring pop off the bench on a night when the offense stagnated on multiple occasions.
Four players who did not start on opening night played over 30 minutes for the Cavaliers, and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff knows that the team will step up, even when the odds are against them.
“It's the character of the group,” Bickerstaff said. “They're not gonna lay down and I think tonight is just more evidence of that, we just continue to scrap, we'll fight our way through it and hopefully get some bodies back soon. And then continue to compete.”
For the Cavs, you could see the identity of the team interwoven in the team’s play. No player embodied that more than Osman…
Return of the Cedi
Following a disappointing 2020-21 season, Cedi Osman’s role with the Cavaliers this season was murky at best. The forward shot a career low 37% from the floor and 30% from three-point last season.
This season? The Cavaliers forward has turned into the team’s own Turkish Delight off the bench, averaging 11 points off the bench and shooting a career-high 42% from beyond the arc this season.
“I’m just letting the game come to me,” Osman said about the changes from last season to this season. “It just makes everything easier, not forcing the issue.”
And he isn’t the only one to notice the change in Osman, who has added a much-needed scoring pop off the bench in the absence of so many key contributors.
“Well, you need that punch, and the situation we're in, and we talked about before the game everybody's just got to do a little bit more,” Bickerstaff said of Osman following the game. “And Cedi provided a great spark for us. He was aggressive. He knew we needed buckets, and he was able to go and create baskets for us. So, that's what the makeup of the team is."
Bickerstaff continued, "We're not gonna be a good individual team. Like, we're not gonna be able to just focus on one person or two people and play iso basketball. The beginning of the year, we said if we're going to have any success, we're gonna have to be the best team on the floor every night. And when you do that, you’ve got to have guys step up and accept their roles. And I think Cedi has done a phenomenal job of that.”
Osman and the Cavaliers will look to get back in the win column on Wednesday night at 7:30 PM at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn facing off with the Nets.