Cavaliers Brawl with Grizzlies May Become a Necessary Spark For Wine and Gold

The words echoed through the coffers of Rocket Mortgage Field house and made their rounds on social media long after the final buzzer on Thursday night.

“We don’t have guys who start shit, but we have guys who don’t run away from shit,” JB Bickerstaff said of the altercation between Cavs star Donovan Mitchell and Grizzlies antagonist Dillon Brooks. It was a powerful message from the Cavs head coach.

Mitchell, rightfully, didn’t take too kindly to Brooks rolling onto his ankle, then following it up with swipe at his, well, manhood after a blocked shot. He decided to take matters into his own hands, throwing the ball at Brooks, then shoving him as pandemonium ensued and benches cleared. Mitchell – along with Brooks – were ejected but for his teammates that remained, there was a new mojo about them.

“I’ve never seen Donovan that heated before, but it was good to see,” Darius Garland said of his teammate. “It was a dirty play from that other dude over there. He had to protect himself so we just rallied behind him and protected our teammate. We’re no sissies over here, we’re not going for all the little cheap shots so … it was some good team comradery.”

The moment became a source of motivation as they went on to outscore the smack talking Grizzlies 18-10 to end the third quarter, building an insurmountable lead.

“I love my guys man,” Mitchell said. “They held it down for me. We got a talented group. I think the biggest thing is we just find a way to win and we used that to our advantage and continued to compete.”

Ironically, with the game on national TV, the incident teetered on a PR nightmare for the league – with warnings to fans about remaining in their seats while it all unfolded. For the Cavs though, that image of a fiery Mitchell standing his ground while his teammates ran to his defense against the NBA’s modern day Bad Boy Piston’s served as a profound moment long after the dust settled.

In many ways it was exactly what Cleveland needed.

“They did a great job of keeping their composure and understanding what the main thing was,” Bickerstaff said. “We still had to go out and win a basketball game. A lot of times teams like [Memphis] can use that as motivation and fuel themselves, that’s a spark that they need. But I thought our guys did a great job using it as a spark for us.”

Since starting the season 8-1, the Cavs are just 23-21 over the next 44 games. In the 16 games they had played since the turn of the calendar they were a perfectly average .500 team at 8-8, including a troubling loss earlier this week to a Miami heat team that’s on their tail in the Eastern Conference Standings. There’s been troubling trends like trying to dig themselves out of early game deficits, calls for Bickerstaff’s job and demands for trades by next week’s deadline.

And yet, more than any coaching change, or player addition, sometimes it’s a key moment during the season that unlocks something or flips that switch.

“Sometimes people mistake our kindness for weakness,” Bickerstaff said. “We don’t have those brash, trash-talking, instigating type of guys. But what our guys are are physically and mentally tough and they have a fortitude to themselves where they don’t take steps backwards.”

Garland more brashly had similar sentiments.

“We’re some nice young men until you try to do some weird stuff like dude did over there,” he said. We’re still tough though. We gonna fight back if you try to push us first. We’re not soft or anything. We’re still some dogs, as I always say and we’ll never back down from nobody, especially not them guys over there. We’re two of the top young teams in this league and whenever we battle it out it’s gonna be a tough one.”

It's a powerful statement from a young team that’s been getting pushed around by veteran teams lately, but it only means something if the Cavaliers do something with it.

Will this moment stand to spark a turning point in the season for Cleveland? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a cheap shot to the groin became a rallying cry for this franchise, in fact, they have a championship banner – co-signed by Draymond Green’s antics and Klay Thompson’s smack talk – to prove it.

With inferior opponents on the schedule leading up to Thursday’s trade deadline, this upcoming week will be telling for this team. On the other side, some key matchups await and if a late-season climb up the Eastern Conference standings that turns into a postseason run awaits this team, fans may just find themselves looking back at Thursday, Feb. 2 as the night that sparked it. 

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