Deron Williams is a Cavalier; Cleveland stops Milwaukee 102-95
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
It’s official: Deron Williams is a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The former Dallas point guard was waived by the Mavericks last week and signed with the Cavs on Monday, announced by the team before Cleveland’s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks in Quicken Loans Arena the same night.
The Cavs defeated the Bucks 102-95 in a closely contested battle to finish February with a league-best 9-2 record.
“I thought we really did a good job of getting back in transition, loading to him so he couldn’t get downhill and getting to the basket with him,” Cavs head coach said of his team holding Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo to nine points on the evening.
Kyrie Irving led Cleveland (41-17) with a game-high 25 points, four rebounds and nine assists. With his first assist Monday night, Irving became the 8th player in franchise history to tally 2,000 career assists. Meanwhile, after missing Cleveland’s previous game with strep throat, LeBron James returned to the Cavs lineup and finished four assists shy of a triple-double, totaling 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
After former Cavalier Matthew Dellavedova knocked down a floater with 5:11 remaining in regulation, the Cavs held a slim 86-85 lead. That was the closest the Bucks came the rest of the way, as Cleveland immediately used an 11-0 run, capped by a Derrick Williams three-pointer, to take a 97-85 lead with 2:38 to play that put the game out of reach.
“We needed his juice tonight, just pushing the basketball in transition, getting easy baskets,” Lue said of James.
The news of the night, however, was Williams’ arrival in Cleveland. The 32-year-old, who addresses the Cavs’ glaring need for a backup point guard, said his decision to join Cleveland wasn’t a difficult one.
“At the end of the day, I just felt like this was the best fit for me,” Williams said. “It was the team that showed interest in the offseason in signing me…I just felt like I’d be comfortable here. I felt like I’d have a significant role here with the need for a backup behind Kyrie.”
The 6-foot-3 point guard has experience with Cavs players, as he played with James in the Olympics and with Kyle Korver in Utah from 2007-2009. Korver, a good friend of Williams’, acknowledged that he had been actively recruiting the point guard prior to his signing — and why not? Williams is a three-time All-Star with two Olympic gold medals on his resume.
“Honestly, he’s a big reason why I’m here, just talking to him and him helping me be comfortable with it,” Williams said of Korver.
In 40 games with the Mavericks this season, Williams averaged 13.1 points, 6.9 assists and 2.6 rebounds in 29.3 minutes per game. The 12-year veteran also shot 35 percent from the three-point line with Dallas, but he’ll be tasked with setting up Cleveland’s array of long-distance snipers once he takes the court in a Cavs uniform. Lue said he hopes that Williams will play on Wednesday when the Cavaliers meet the Celtics in Boston.
Williams will wear No. 31 with the Cavs because his former number, eight, is worn by Channing Frye, and his college number, five, is worn by J.R. Smith. His first number in high school was 31, and he surely won’t mind the number change for the chance to win a title.
“It was important,” Williams said about coming to a team with a chance to win a championship. “It was kind of an easy decision for me, I think. I definitely looked at a couple other teams, but once Dallas did inform me that they wanted to go in another direction, the Cavs were kind of the first team that jumped out at me.
“A lot of times, you try to overthink things, so I just kind of went with my first thought.”
Another player that might be on the Cavs’ radar is recently bought-out center Andrew Bogut. Bogut played with Williams this season in Dallas before he was traded to Philadelphia last week, and reports list Cleveland as a possible destination for the big man from Australia.
“We’ve been in contact,” Williams said with a grin. “We’ve been in contact.”
POSTED 02/27/2017 22:26
Lake County Sentinel
Photo by Greg Goth
