Cleveland, Ohio – Ty Jerome could only look.
Angrily. Vexually. Miserably.
It was about a year ago, that Jérôme, who was still recovering from a reconstructive ankle surgery that stole his first season with the CAVS, had to suffer from afar while the teammates seemed mainly decorated in attack for 12 consecutive series games to a ceremony without ceremony of the conference.
Jerome had a dominant thought.
“I kept thinking about all the ways I could have helped,” Jerome in Cleveland.com told Rocket Arena on Sunday evening after the victory of Cleveland 121-100 at the opening of the series on Miami Heat. “There was a lot of anger. I just wanted this opportunity. ”
He finally arrived. Easter Sunday. Match 1 against Miami tested in combat. The beginnings in the long -awaited playoffs of Jerome – when he waited all his life.
It was worth waiting. A start for ages.
“The guy made moments like this,” said little striker Max Strus. “It is made for the spotlight.”
Jerome shredd the helpless defense of Miami, finishing with 28 points, the third most in any match in his career, out of 10 of 15 shots and 5 out of 3 points in 26 minutes that change the bench – the kind of performance that underlines why he is one of the three finalists for the sixth man of the year.
“Solid,” said Jerome when he was asked to characterize his beginnings in the playoffs. “We can reassess after the series.”
The launch of Sunday arrived seven months ago, almost 500 miles away.
Inside the John A. Paulson center on the University of New York campus, the riders met for voluntary training sessions organized by the players before the training camp. There was a constant voice that echoed through the gymnasium, coming from a guy decomposing the defenders of the dribble, falling into feathered floats and draining the 3S logo, showing no signs of rust or injury.
It was Jérôme – The forgotten man on the star list of Cleveland who missed every minute except 15 in 2023-24 due to a frustrating ankle injury which ultimately required surgery, led to months of exhausting rehabilitation and sent it to a “dark place”, filled with doubt and depression.
During these September pickup matches, Jérôme looked like one of the best players in the team – and he told everyone, with the kind of non -stop speech that has always sank in his mouth.
“I spoke (explained) all my life,” said Jerome laughing. “It’s just a bit that I am, with everything I do. Board games. Video games. Basketball. All that. It’s just how I grew up. My two parents are ultra-competitive and it is just who I have become.”
Some members of the riders were not aware of it at the beginning.
“Slow down, my friend,” said Darius Garland on Sunday evening when he was asked for his initial reaction at the end of last summer to Jerome’s mouth. “He was talking about his (explanative) and he supported it, so you can’t really tell him anything.”
This boastful, something that coach Kenny Atkinson has repeatedly called “irrational confidence”, has become the signature of Jérôme.
The crowd eaten. The teammates feed. The opponents cannot bear it.
“They laugh (Ed) on him because he was at the beginning like a little player,” said Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson about Jerome’s teammates. “He was still doing swag stuff … and they were a bit like:” Who is it? ” Who thinks this guy? Now it has almost become like a common joke among the team in the right direction. »»
No one laughs anymore. Certainly not Miami.
While Jérôme poured a variety of buckets from everywhere, he narrated the defenders of heat with flexions and the gesture of the “too small” hand, looked at the bench, roared like a wild tiger and even showed random fans in a closed windows that included his whole family.
“He seemed so comfortable there,” said Jarrett Allen. “Crazy. He showed why he was one of the best players and should be the sixth man of the year. He did everything for us tonight.”
Well, not All.
Sunday was a complete performance. A total team effort. Almost forty-eight minutes of domination.
Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points, his seventh consecutive match of the opening series struck this brand, tied with the great Michael Jordan for the longest sequence of eliminatory series in the history of the NBA.
Garland finished with 27 points, the third highest score match of his young career in playoffs.
Allen responded to the Atkinson rebound challenge, reducing a summit of 11, including six on the offensive end.
These are all footnotes in the Jérôme Magnum opus.
“This is your first time in the playoffs? Of course, I didn’t look like him,” said Mitchell when he was sitting next to Jérôme on the post-match podium. “That’s it was. It is not a shock. I don’t think we are not surprised at night. It is the full loop when we were 8 years old, to my first basketball teammate, now we are there. I know that everyone will react as it is a shock, but he did this for us all year round.”
Mitchell is one of those who know the best Jerome.
The two played together on the AAU circuit with New York Riverside Hawks – a team driven by Jerome’s father, Mark. Mitchell and Jerome were also teammates from the Baseball Little League.
The other is the reserve striker of’Andre Hunter – Jerome’s roommate for three years and his teammate within the team of the National Championship of the University of Virginia in 2019.
“I saw it a million times,” Hunter told Cleveland.com. “It’s normal for me. Maybe a surprise for the others. Not for me. This is what he does in big games. ”
Towards the nine -minute brand of the fourth quarter, Miami exceeded himself to get closer. It was a seven-point match after Davion Mitchell’s driving lay-up.
The tension temporarily crossed the arena – until Jérôme’s triple of ear.
But then, the BAM Adebayo heat center struck one of its own, making it a three possessions.
Jerome followed this with a burst of exchange in which he explained the following 16 points of Cleveland, gesturing from top to bottom on the field after each game. And, of course, bunching his gums as if he were back in Nyu.
“I was more excited for this match than I had been all year round,” said Jerome. “But you take a few deep breaths. It’s just basketball. Dribble the ball in the same way. Pull the ball in the same way. The same people keep you. As a competitor, I want everyone to be the best. I want to play when people go the hardest, when the lights are the brightest. I live for these moments.”
Jérôme scored 16 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, Cleveland surpassing Miami 34-21 and finally violated the bench with about a minute to play.
This is the third point the most of any rider during their beginnings in the playoffs. The only two with more? LeBron James and Kyrie Irving – a pair of beloved franchise legends.
If Jérôme continues, there could be a place for him in the Cavs tradition too. He has already won the crowd.
While the NBA Nomad, 27, – at least, before his arrival in Cleveland, two years ago – entered the line of free throws several times in the fourth quarter, a song sounded through the arena.
Ty J-Rome! Ty J-Rome! Ty J-Rome!
“Please stop singing your name on the free throw line,” joked Mitchell. “He missed twice.”
It is the only imperfection on the beginning of the also spectacular – AHEM, solid – eliminations.
Twelve months ago, no one could have predicted This. Not even Jérôme, who was fighting with intrusive thoughts with his slow ankle to heal.
Free time has given him time to think.
“You have time to think about where you have to go to the next step,” said Jerome. “When entering the offseason, your back is against the wall. You don’t play any game. I don’t really have a huge job in the NBA. And you have a last stroke in a way to do things well.”
Sunday was the culmination of this summer transformer, where Jérôme crawled in the dark and lit the match on this career resurrection.
