Jordan McRae hasn’t been what the Cavaliers had hoped for this season. Not even close. At all. He’s been pretty not good the whole season up to this point, betraying the Cavs who were expecting him to contribute in at least a minor way. Prior to this game he was shooting a sweet 32 percent from the field and not drawing fouls in his usual fashion.
I don’t think many people were fooled by his 36-point game near the end of last season, a game where he got to play tons of minutes and be the main dude on offense. It was, and still is, a totally amazing performance by him, but there wasn’t a soul in attendance who thought it could happen on a regular basis. They were right! They were more than right!
Until tonight. 20 points isn’t 36, but it came in the flow of the offense mostly, not as a result of him pounding the ball every possession. He showed he can play with LeBron at least sometimes, which is literally the only criterion for receiving minutes as a Cavs role-player. We’re not going to see much more of him when Kyrie comes back, sadly, or maybe not sadly, depending on what you want to see from Cleveland this year.