By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The Cleveland Cavaliers arguably are among the early overachievers in the 2021-22 NBA Regular Season. Spanish star Ricky Rubio really left his mark on the most recent win, on Sunday.
Rubio, 31, set his personal high at 37 points knocking down 13/19 field goals, including 8/9 three-pointers leading his side past the New York Knicks at the Madison Square Garden. He connected all of his first eight long-range attempts in the huge showing.
“I don’t know. The ball went in. I kept shooting,” he mentioned in a loss for words as teammates congratulated him immediately after the game, “It’s a great win.”
The Cavs improved to 7-4, currently sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference standings. Both former NBA champion Kevin Love and Finnish Lauri Markkanen recently entering the league’s health and safety protocols failed to slow them down.
“There’s a lot of guys that can score, a lot of guys that can do a lot of things in this team. It’s not just a one-man show,” noted Rubio carrying plenty of experience from multiple kinds of NBA teams, “We show it every night.”
With the attached ten assists versus the Knicks, he became the first player in NBA history with at least 30 points, ten assists, and eight three-pointers coming off the bench. The 37 points scored made out a career-high, counting the early playing days in Spain before the jump to the NBA.
“I think this team is super fun because we have a lot of players that can really score, but at the end of the day we want to win and we are here to win,” he added on playing for the Cavaliers, “It’s a great feeling, the way we started the season. But it’s only 11 games. It’s an 82-game season. It’s a marathon. We started pretty well and we will keep doing it.”
Arriving hot from the Tokyo Olympic Games to his 11th NBA season and joining the young Cavs, he has put up 13.7 points, 6.8 assists, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per 2021-22 contest. “Coming off probably my best summer playing for the Spain national team, I wanted to keep playing that way,” he said in the postgame press conference.
Up next for his side, eight of the next nine games at home, in a stretch through most of November.
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