Cavs: Clutch Collin Sexton and 3 other things from win over Hawks

Collin Sexton was clutch all fourth quarter, helping lead the Cavs to a gritty win on Saturday night over the high-powered Hawks.

Collin Sexton has done it again, leading the Cavs to another big win. This time it was against the Trae Young lead Hawks on Saturday night. The Cavs went down to Atlanta where they caught a break as Danillo Gallinari has been plagued with injury issues this year, and was unavailable for the matchup. That allowed the Cavs a bit less to worry about, allowing for them to knock off the Hawks 96-91.

Sexton dropped 27, with 10-of-18 from the floor, 2-of-5 from three, and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. Andre Drummond dropped his sixth straight double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds), while Javale McGee had 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Cedi Osman also put together a nice bench outing, scoring 11 points, four rebounds, and four assists

Here are four things we learned from the  Jan 2 win over the Hawks.

Collin Sexton can out-score the best

Few people would argue that Trae Young isn’t one of the better scorers in the lead but on Saturday night it was Sexton and not Young that stepped up in a huge way. Young had a pedestrian shooting night and that allowed Sexton to really outshine the young Atlanta star.

Team defense has, at least for now, improved from last year

Six games are too small of a sample size to really render a judgment on this team’s defense (or anything) so far but so far it has been very good. J.B. Bickerstaff and Andre Drummond have really made a big difference. That’s something kinda lost on last year’s team, Drummond was only around for about six games, so there was no clear idea what this team could look like with him. This may be the new normal.

Larry Nance not consistent enough to replace Kevin Love

Larry Nance is best used as a sixth or seventh man off the bench who can do it all. Pass, rebound, score, play defense, run the court. Yet, having him try to replace the production of Kevin Love is largely a bad idea. He’s not a consistent enough shooter to really be able to replace Love. Love also isn’t an athletic rebounder, he gets his position and forces guys off the block when he contests rebounds. Nance doesn’t have Love’s fullback like skillset and it shows.

Darius Garland struggles, again

The theme for Darius Garland this year will be inconsistency. It’s better to have a Ricky Rubio, T.J. McConnell, Rajon Rondo type at point guard than Garland. Guys who can protect the ball, get ball movement going and find their assist, play defense and not worry too much about getting off shots. That’s not Garland’s game, however. He likes chucking shots. A day where he goes 3-of-14 from the floor wouldn’t be so bad if he had 10 assists to his eight points but tonight Garland had just two. He also led the team again in turnovers, with five. He’s got to find consistency if he’s going to be part of the future.