CLEVELAND — A familiar chant enveloped Quicken Loans Arena during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday:
“Dell-y! Dell-y! Dell-y!”
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Cleveland point guard Matthew Dellavedova might be a backup to Kyrie Irving in these playoffs, but his name is chanted just the same.
Dellavedova heard the chant in full force, a recognition of his role in a 16-2 second-quarter run that helped blow open a 115-84 Cavaliers win over the Raptors.
"(The Cavs') second unit has been playing together for a little bit now, and we feel really comfortable and know what we have to do,” Dellavedova said. “It starts with defence. When we get stops, then we can do some really special things.”
That lineup, which features Dellavedova, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye around LeBron James, has become a trending topic in the playoffs.
“With LeBron, we want to bring a lot of energy and pick up the pace,” Dellavedova said. “We want to fly around defensively, and I think we did a pretty good job of that (Tuesday)."
Dellavedova helped spark the run with a series of plays reminiscent of the energizers that led to him becoming Cleveland’s Australian cult hero last postseason.
He drilled the second of back-to-back three-pointers, then scored an and-one on a back-cut and a pass from Frye. Dellavedova’s alley-oop pass to James for a slam continued the onslaught, which didn’t end until a dunk by Shumpert.
When Dellavedova left at the 6:07 mark of the quarter, the Cavaliers had an 18-point lead and Raptors star guard Kyle Lowry was 1 of 6 from the floor.
Delly oop! #ALLin216 pic.twitter.com/tDoEjGDp65
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 18, 2016
“The game ball definitely goes to our bench tonight,” James said afterward. “I mean, you look at plus-24, 20, 18, 17, all the way down, those guys gave us a boost in that second quarter. I was out there with them, but Channing, Shump, Delly and R.J., at that moment they pushed the tempo.”
For Dellavedova, that performance got him back on track. He scored just nine points on 3-of-15 shooting in the second round against Atlanta. But even with the scoring struggles, he has been an effective player on both sides. He has a 32:6 assist-to-turnover ratio in the playoffs, and he continues to be the same pesky defender. He even played together with Irving in the second half Tuesday.
His connection with James — their lockers sit side by side — also will keep Dellavedova in the lineup.
“LeBron and Delly, they have a great chemistry on the floor together,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said Wednesday. “I just thought it would be better for the second unit to get more shots and spread the ball out, spread the floor, and it's something we decided going into the Detroit series and it worked out, so we stayed with it.”
That could mean more chants are in store. Dellavedova will take those the same as last year.
"We have great fans here, and we always get a lot of energy from them every night,” he said. “We love playing here.”
