MEMPHIS, Tenn. — I am writing to you from the front, where the Cleveland Cavaliers set a franchise record for consecutive wins, consecutive road wins and the longest winning streak by any NBA team this season.
By “the front,” I mean the front row. Memphis is one of the few remaining arenas where the reporters sit at or behind the scorer’s table. Before we get into anything else, here are some things I saw and heard from the Cavs’ 133-124 win over the Grizzlies that I would not have seen or heard in most basketball gyms in this league.
Darius Garland sniffed smelling salts while going through Cleveland’s pregame handshake line. He shook with his right hand and held a little pink packet under his nose with his left.
I’d seen Memphis Grizzlies rookie Zach Edey up close before, but watching the 7-foot-4, 305-pound center work in the first quarter, I mean, he is massive. He looks like what I imagine when my son talks to me about mechs — those fictional, giant robot machines piloted by a human from a cockpit in the head or chest of the robot machine. Victor Wembanyama is also 7-4 (and listed at 235 pounds), and I have seen him up close many times, but the “Wow, that dude is huge” factor is stronger with Edey.
In the first quarter, Cleveland’s Isaac Okoro was whistled for a reach-in foul. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson hated the call, asked Okoro if he thought he had committed the foul and then flagged the attention of the officials’ crew chief, Curtis Blair.
“Curt, come on man, that’s a flop (on Jaren Jackson Jr.),” Atkinson barked. “Isaac said he never touched him.”
Blair, who has the V shape of someone who walks directly from Gold’s Gym onto the court with the whistle around his neck, was quick with his response.
“Of course he said that.”
On the next possession, Atkinson was called for a technical, not by Blair, but by Matt Kallio. (Kallio is also a big guy. Blair and Kallio would make excellent outside linebackers for the Memphis Tigers, but probably not the Ohio State Buckeyes.) Kenny screamed at Kallio to “call the foul,” which earned him the tech, so Atkinson followed up with “call the (expletive) foul,” and Kallio let it go.
Cleveland’s De’Andre Hunter, the best trade deadline acquisition this side of Jimmy Butler, made his first 3-pointer as soon as he entered the game. He turned to the bench and mouthed, “I’m back.” He hit his second 3, turned back to the bench and signaled “That’s two,” and did it again after his third 3-pointer.
Right back into the lineup.
Right back on the scoresheet. #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/xFXzR190ID— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 15, 2025
Now, see, I thought Hunter was referring to some slight lapse in confidence. He last played Sunday in Milwaukee and shot just 2-of-6 from the field before missing Tuesday’s home game against the Brooklyn Nets with an illness.
But no, Hunter later said he was looking for an assistant coach he worked out with during Friday morning’s shootaround. Apparently, he missed too many shots during the workout. Not so during the game — he scored 18 points.
Also during the first half, another of Cleveland’s super subs, Ty Jerome, was called for a push in the back by Kallio, who immediately turned to Jerome and snapped “Don’t talk to me” as Jerome began to complain. A timeout was called, and Jerome said, “You don’t gotta be like that,” as he walked to the bench.
In the third quarter, Jerome fired what appeared to be an air ball. He demanded a challenge, arguing that the ball was tipped out of bounds, and yelled at the game’s third official, Rodney Mott, “Come on, Rodney. I don’t air ball.” Jerome was right. The replay showed he was fouled from behind, and he was awarded three foul shots. Jerome scored 12 off the bench.
Toward the end of the first half, which the Cavs would win 75-58, Memphis star Ja Morant drew a foul call on Sam Merrill by drawing contact in the air. Atkinson, who had to be careful because he’d already drawn one tech, pleaded with Blair, “Ja jumped into him. He jumped three feet to hit him.”
Morant, who would score 44 points in the game, sought out Atkinson before the start of the second half. “Come on man,” Ja said to Atkinson, laughing.
After controlling the game throughout, the Cavs appeared to consider letting the Grizzlies back into it in the fourth quarter. Memphis cut its deficit to 114-101 with 8:25 left, and Atkinson called a timeout to try to blunt the Grizzlies’ momentum. He also didn’t like the physicality he felt Memphis was getting away with, and it sure looked like he mock-clapped at Blair without saying anything. Hilarious.
Here’s how the Cavs blunted the momentum against them: out of that timeout, following the mock clapping, the Cavs grabbed two offensive rebounds and Garland found Merrill in the corner for a dagger 3. Then, Javonte Green drained a 3, and Mobley finished an alley-oop from Merrill.
If the game wasn’t over then, Garland finished it with a ridiculous, fadeaway teardrop over Jackson (and free throw), and then a deep 3 with 4:01 left for a 130-110 advantage. Timeout Grizzlies, and Garland and former Cavs teammate Lamar Stevens had a back-and-forth as the teams headed to their benches.
DG hit this one from NASHVILLE! @dariusgarland22 | #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/HiIH71tmbB
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 15, 2025
Garland finished with 20 points and nine assists. Mobley led the team in points (22) and rebounds (11), while Jarrett Allen contributed 16 points and Merrill added 14.
Oh, you don’t see Donovan Mitchell’s name? He didn’t even make the trip — he’s rehabbing a sore groin.
“I just go back to our roster — we have so many guys, we go so deep,” Atkinson said while explaining how the Cavs essentially dominated the second-best team in the West, on the road, without Mitchell. “You bring in the next guy, he plays well. Sometimes, you bring in another guy, and he plays better than the guy that was in. It just speaks to our roster. You kind of know when something special is going on.
“We’ve got something special, and it’s beside the basketball.”
As previously mentioned, the Cavs have won a franchise-record 16 games in a row overall and 11 in a row on the road. The 16 straight is the best streak in the NBA this season, beating the two 15-gamers the Cavs have been on and the one enjoyed by Oklahoma City. Cleveland hasn’t lost since trading for Hunter. The Cavaliers have won 20 of their last 21 games, and their 56-10 record is tied for fifth-best in NBA history through 66 games. Seventy is in reach.
But when Atkinson said “beside the basketball,” he was not only talking about how the individual parts that make up this team co-exist. He was talking, in part, about the Cavs’ little getaway to Nashville before heading to Memphis.
If you’re big into social media, then you probably know. The Cavs traveled to Tennessee early and spent Thursday practicing at Vanderbilt, where Garland played before the Cavs drafted him and near where his parents still live.
You’ve probably seen the videos of Garland catching a beautiful, high-arching pass in the end zone (from Max Strus, it turns out) at Vanderbilt’s football complex. You’ve seen Merrill banging 35-yard kicks through the uprights.
The ability to hit from 23 feet and 40 yards? @smerrill05 can do both. #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/LUrWk996MX
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 13, 2025
Jerome is in some of the videos and insisted he — not Strus — was QB1. “I’m Tom Brady but a little mobile,” Jerome said.
The players and coaches held a little game, and the coaches lost, unsurprisingly. “It was great seeing who can play football, and who can’t, on both sides,” Atkinson said. “Darius Garland can probably play in the NFL. … Max, incredible. Sam Merrill … you don’t know these guys have these talents.”
The statement reminded me of a game of catch I participated in after a Cavs practice at NYU about 10 years ago. LeBron James, J.R. Smith and assistant coach James Posey were firing the football around the gym. Reporters were standing around, and Posey looked at me like, hey, you want in? I played football in high school and baseball in college, so I said, Sure, and put my phone and notepad down. I caught three or four throws from Posey, and my forearm was pink. I couldn’t use my hands to catch his passes — there was too much on them. It was a reminder of what Atkinson said, just how talented these professional athletes are at, well, everything.
(Not only can Merrill kick a football and shoot a basketball, but his golf handicap is 2.3, according to the United States Golf Association.)
As for the excursion as a whole, at some point during the season, team president Koby Altman decided the Cavs would travel early to Nashville for some fun and some practice. They attended Vanderbilt’s SEC tournament game Wednesday, held a team dinner and some players and coaches enjoyed Nashville’s famous Broadway district.
“Koby’s a great driver of these things,” Atkinson said. “And man, that was one thing we talked about in the beginning of the season, when the season (gets) so long, it’s, how do we keep our guys fresh? How do we keep them engaged? … I do feel a little bit right now with our guys like there’s a little bit of a monotony setting in. And so it was perfect timing for the trip.”
I’d love to know what Garland thought about playing host to his teammates in Nashville, about the pass he caught from Strus, and about Atkinson saying he could play in the NFL. But it wasn’t meant to be Friday night.
Garland stayed on the court long after the game, visiting with family and friends. In the meantime, a tornado watch was issued for Memphis, with storms and high winds moving into the area. The Cavs’ locker room session for reporters — I don’t want to say it was cut short, necessarily, but there was an emphasis placed on brevity so the team could get to the plane before the storm hit.
The Plain Dealer’s Chris Fedor and I thought we should get out of the arena before the storm hit, too. So we walked Beale Street, with the winds whipping on an otherwise warm night, and the sudden, sharp gusts that tore through the alley reminded me of how the Cavs have ripped through the NBA this season.
(Photo of De’Andre Hunter: Matthew Smith / Imagn Images)
