Ex-Gopher J.B. Bickerstaff has Cavaliers among top teams in the East

CLEVELAND — Nothing that has happened with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season has surprised Taurean Prince.

Prince is now with the Timberwolves, who defeated the Cavaliers 127-122 on Monday in the front end of a difficult back-to-back that will end against Golden State on Tuesday in Target Center.

But last year Prince played in Cleveland.

Under coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the former Gophers player, the Cavaliers have played through myriad injury problems and, after Monday's loss, are 36-25 and in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

Bickerstaff has been around the league as an assistant coach for five teams, including the Wolves. He had head coaching stints in Houston and Memphis. In his fifth year with the Cavaliers, he was elevated to head coach last year when the Cavaliers went 22-50 and finished 13th in the East.

But Prince, dealt over the offseason for Ricky Rubio, knew their struggles wouldn't last. "Nothing that has happened this year has surprised me," he said. "Not at all. I'm just kinda bummed I wasn't here for it. But it's all good. They have a great situation going here."

Even without guard Collin Sexton, who is battling back from a knee injury, the Cavs have played well. Point guard Darius Garland has stepped up his game in his third season, averaging 20.3 and eight assists. Center Evan Mobley (14.8 points, 8.1 rebounds) has had a marvelous rookie season and Jarrett Allen is a double-double machine. Now back from missing a month because of an ankle sprain, Lauri Markkanen gives Bickerstaff another 7-footer to go with Allen (6-11) and Mobley (7-0).

"He's done an outstanding job," Wolves coach Chris Finch said of Bickerstaff. "They play a unique style with all their bigs. They kind of play a throwback style. I think J.B. has always liked that. They post up, try to take advantage of their mismatches. The thing that's most impressive about them is they've been able to kind of get guys in really highly productive roles. They play to their personnel strengths. They're not trying to play like everybody in this league is trying to play. They're trying to play to what their guys do best."

Led by forward Isaac Okoro, the Cavaliers have a strong defense, with the third-best defensive rating in the league. But it's the bigs that make the big difference.

"Those guys can do a multitude of things on the floor," Bickerstaff said. "They're not pigeonholed into being old-school big guys. They can pass, they can space the floor, they can play the pick and roll. So those are the ones who give us the ability to play the style of basketball that we do."

Bickerstaff said he learned a lot about how to use skilled big men when in Houston with Kevin McHale. "Having conversations with him about big guys, how to take advantage of size, it helped," Bickerstaff said. "But even his group, they were big, but they could space the floor and play on the perimeter as well."

Prince said it was more than X's and O's that made Bickerstaff successful.

"When you meet that guy, and you understand his connection with his players, you understand why they play so hard for him," Prince said. "They respect him. When I was [with Cleveland], they were in the gym, working, every day."

Beasley back

As expected, guard Malik Beasley was able to return to action after missing the Wolves' 133-102 Saturday loss to Philadelphia because of a non-COVID-19-related illness.