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CLEVELAND, Ohio – The last time Larry Nance Jr. saw a performance like this was here in Cleveland. That’s when James Harden, then with the Houston Rockets, came to town and racked up 55 points. For Cavaliers head coach JB Bickerstaff, Collin Sexton’s late-game scoring frenzy brought him back to when he was with Harden in Houston. Taurean Prince thought of Kyrie Irving’s dazzling Brooklyn debut in which he scored 50.
Cleveland was the epicenter of the NBA on Wednesday night. All eyes were on the Nets. It was Irving’s first game in two weeks. The debut of the league’s newest Big Three.
But on a pitch that featured some of the NBA’s brightest stars – Harden, Irving and Kevin Durant – no one shone more than Sexton.
It was his arrival – out of obscurity playing for the cave dweller Cavs, and into the national spotlight as the cornerstone of the league’s most pleasant surprise.
“I don’t pay enough attention to what’s going on to know how he feels in the league. But I know I’m watching it and I don’t know what year it is for me – 17 or 18 – it’s not normal. He’s not a regular NBA player. He’s a dynamic goalscorer, ”Bickerstaff told cleveland.com after the 147-135 double-overtime victory. “We have to win more games and put him in a position to close more games where people respect what he can do and what he is capable of. It is our responsibility and it is our goal. The more he does it when the moments matter the most, I think people will gain more respect for him.
No better time than Wednesday.
In his first comeback after a five-game absence due to a sprained ankle. The Cavs have a chance to come back to the .500 mark after hitting a tough area filled with injuries. On the heels of Kevin Porter Jr., considered by many to be the most naturally gifted of Cleveland’s young core, being exiled for unprofessionalism. Against the Nets, the fascinating super team of the NBA and one of the favorites of the title. Against Irving, the night’s guest of honor who owns a vast catalog of ruthless snaps and whose commercial demand in 2017 ultimately led to the arrival of Sexton – the two connected forever.
“I’m in Cleveland wearing # 2 and wearing Kyrie. It’s going to be linked. I just have to take it. I can’t control what people say, but I can control what I do, ”admitted Sexton. “It was good to go against him tonight. I definitely accepted the challenge and knew it wouldn’t be easy. Just the simple fact that it’s Kyrie, he comes to you every night ready to go and tonight was good.
This is an understatement. Try remarkable. Unforgettable. One of the best individual performances in franchise history. A 42-point masterpiece that included 20 straight points for the Cavs on a scorching streak, 22 combined points in both overtime and 15 of the team’s 20 in double OT as Sexton threw up shots everywhere.
He became the second Cavs player to score 20 points in a row in the past two decades, joining LeBron James.
As Sexton’s 3-point bombs continued to bury Brooklyn belatedly, Irving couldn’t help but laugh and smile. Durant shook his head. Sexton’s teammates have gone ballistic.
“He was just on fire tonight. He was unconscious. He was mad. He did all the hits. It was beautiful to watch, ”said Cedi Osman, who scored 25 points and stabilized the attack early on as Sexton shed the rust off. “You can see there’s a lot of difference with Collin’s play. Obviously last year he was (good) and this year he’s even better.
“I got to a point where I was talking waste before the shot even came in,” Jarrett Allen said after making his Cavs debut against his former team. “I didn’t know he had none of that in him. I heard he was going to Boston once, but that was another level.
“Confidence is one thing the kid never misses… and for good reason,” Nance said.
With the game tied at the end of settlement after Irving returned, the Cavs called a timeout. There was no doubt what Bickerstaff wanted. He put the ball in Sexton’s hands, made a move with Isaac Okoro and Osman, and let Sexton take on Irving. Only Sexton dribbled the ball over his leg – a costly mistake at an inopportune moment that gave the Nets a chance for the winner.
Sexton didn’t sulk or look to the bench – a bad habit early in his career. He came back on defense and drew what looked like a foul on an Irving driving. The game was called off following a challenge from Steve Nash, and the two teams gathered at center court for a jumpball, which killed the rest of the clock.
Sexton had a few tougher possessions during overtime – missed floats, layups and 3s – but his tip-in with 10.7 seconds reduced Brooklyn’s lead to one.
“Young Bull, he really saved me on this game,” Osman said of his aerial ball. “It was a hell of a play too. He kept us in the game.
Next, Sexton canned a cold-blooded dagger in Irving’s face with 1.2 left to tie the game. This bucket, which looked like some of Irving’s late players with the Cavs, actually sent the showdown convincing in a second OT.
It was then that Sexton broke.
“He was exhausted,” Bickerstaff said with a laugh. “Somehow he made up his mind to make plans. You become a much better coach when you have guys who can. Don’t think about it too much and don’t overload it. Let Collin be Collin and take us home. He was able to do it.
Even with some of Sexton’s stumbles, Bickerstaff never thought of stepping away from him, not with the Nets changing everything late.
“Where we’re currently offensively with the bodies we have, he has to be a focal point,” Bickerstaff said. “He can beat his man. He can put pressure on the defense. They know what game you are going to play, they know what game you are going to play. It was almost like a playoff game. The playoffs get to can you beat your man? We are convinced that Collin can beat his man. He was literally trying to just put him in a position where he could go and play a one-on-one basketball game.
So what was Bickerstaff thinking at the time?
“The old Doug Collins clip – give the ball to Michael (Jordan) and get out of the way,” Bickerstaff explained. “Just give her space to do her thing.”
Sexton did, stopping the Cavs from wasting a 14-point lead, responding to every shot the Brooklyn trio made and continuing to prove his skeptics wrong.
During his rookie year, Sexton fought off biting remarks from his own teammates about his availability and unwarranted place that some believed came from his draft location. He arrived with a reputation as a bad shooter, the draft pick the Cavs should have traded to get another winner-now player to chase a title in LeBron’s final season. Then came endless discussions about his assist totals and his “natural” position.
When Sexton ended the 2019-20 season with a furious flurry of scores that put him in the company of some of the best players in the conference, it wouldn’t have mattered because it was coming at the end of the season when the opponent didn’t care, because “someone had to score” on a bad team, or because the Cavs weren’t good enough to win games, which made those numbers drop – none of those factors being Sexton’s fault.
At this point, critics are running out of things to say.
“For some reason, and I wasn’t there at first, there’s this story about Collin,” Bickerstaff told cleveland.com. “We are incredibly lucky to have him. I watch his ability to put the ball in the basket and there aren’t a lot of guys in our league who can do what he does. There are twenty guys out of 480 or whatever who can do what he does. Then there’s another little group of these guys who can do what he does in times of pressure.
“The hardest part for Collin is, and it’s just because of the circumstances, that he hasn’t had a lot of those moments because of the record we’ve had in the past. He has the ability to excel in these times. It’s not for everyone. It just isn’t. There are dynamic scorers and great players. But not everyone can do what they do at these times. None of us are perfect, right? But Collin doesn’t deserve what people say about him.
Very few players are able to measure their feet, blow for blow with KD, Kyrie and Harden. Sexton did. Few can turn Irving’s highly anticipated return to Cleveland, the second time since the Cavaliers’ championship hopes were destroyed, into a footnote. Sexton did.
This is nothing new. He has been doing this since last December. Wednesday turned out to be the night that Sexton finally forced everyone to stand up and take notice.
And change their misperception.
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