The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Thomas’ long-awaited debut with Cavaliers deserved the standing ‘O’
The Cavaliers played nearly half the season — 43.9 percent of it to be exact — without getting any return from their biggest dividend in the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Celtics.
The waiting officially came to an end Jan. 2 at The Q when 5-foot-9 guard Isaiah Thomas with 4:29 left in the first quarter entered a game for the first time since May 19 of last year when a hip injury prematurely ended his playoff run with the Celtics.
The fans in Quicken Loans Arena, seeing Thomas in a game as a Cavalier, stood and cheered as though they had gone through the long, grueling rehab with him.
“It was a special moment,” Thomas said. “I hadn’t even played in a game, so you think I would have been here a few years and battled in the Finals with this team. It was special to have my wife and kids here to see that. That was genuine love right there”
Thomas scored 17 points and had three assists in 19 minutes in the Cavaliers’ dominating 127-110 demolition of the Trail Blazers. He looked at ease.
He looked confident, and if he was rusty, he’s going to be fun to watch when he shakes the rust off.
“I thought it was great,” Coach Tyronn Lue said. “First game out to have 17 points in 19 minutes — it looked easy to him. Once we get the play calls down and run a lot of stuff on the fly, it’s going to be great.
“There are going to be ups and downs the first few weeks. It’s not going to be like tonight all the time.”
Lue mixed and matched through the first month of the season before he got the right combinations to go on a run on which the Cavaliers won 19 of 21 games. Fitting in one point guard should be easy compared to that.
Remarkably — it’s a tribute to LeBron James and Kevin Love — the Cavaliers carried a 24-12 record into their game with the Trail Blazers. They started the night in third place, four games behind the Celtics and 1 ½ games behind to Raptors.
The Cavs have had success basically playing without a true point guard most of the season. Thomas will fill that void as long as he stays healthy. They will get the ball up the court faster. They’ll get more scoring from their guards than they have in most games this season.
“Jose (Calderon) stepped in and did a great job, but now you have a different dynamic point guard who can get into the paint and create havoc,” Lue said. “Now J.R. Smith and Jae Crowder and those guys will get more open shots because the other team has to pay attention to Isaiah. There’ll be more speed getting into the paint and creating something.”
Thomas made his first basket with 1:07 left in the first quarter on a 14-foot jumper and then with 33 seconds left in the quarter he was fouled on his way to a layup high off the glass. He was knocked to the floor, hopped up and made the free throw. Nothing unusual about that — except usually the player shooting and-one isn’t coming off a sevenmonth rehab from a hip injury.
Lue knows that could be a hold-your-breath moment. Lue knows because he was sidelined for 10 months as a player after undergoing microfracture surgery.
“I was scared to play when I first came back,” Lue said. “He’s going to be OK. We’ve talked. Once he hits the floor, gets banged and gets up and see he’s not hurting, that will help him get past that mental block.”
Thomas did have that concern in the back of his mind, he admitted. The first hit cleared that up.
“It felt good to get hit and pop right back up,” Thomas said. “I know that’s going to happen. I have to figure out ways to hit the floor.’
The Cavaliers lost a huge part of their offense when Irving demanded a trade not long after they lost the NBA Finals.
The trade was lopsided in Boston’s favor until now because all they had to show for the deal was forward Jae Crowder and center Ante Zizic. The Cavs also got the Nets’ first-round pick in 2018 and the Heat’s secondround pick in 2020 but of course haven’t cashed them in yet.
One night doesn’t guarantee how Thomas will play in the future, but his debut with the Cavaliers was a hint of what to expect, the next six months look very bright.
Schudel can be reached at JSchudel@News-Herald. com; on Twitter: @jsproinsider