CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Charge’s magical season came to an end with a 126-123 loss to the Capital City Go-Go in the first round of the NBA G League playoffs. The Charge fought hard, but an inability to grab crucial rebounds late ultimately did them in.
Point guard Darius Brown II was the only constant in a Charge season that was characterized by six NBA call-ups. And in many ways, he’s symbolic of why this season has been so successful for the team. His steady hand at the point allowed various roster configurations to work. He was doing so again against the Go-Go until his body finally gave out.
In the first quarter, he bloodied his knee diving for a loose ball. In the third, he hurt his hamstring after being fouled. And midway through the fourth, he rolled his ankle while forcing an eight-second violation.
By the end of the game, Brown could hardly move, but that didn’t keep him from making a positive impact on the game. He hustled back to stop a fastbreak layup with a minute and a half left in a three-point game. Then, he converted a fastbreak layup of his own to make it a one-point game.
Brown wouldn’t use that as an excuse. “Everyone is playing through something,” he said. But most aren’t gutting it out like he was.
“It just says everything about who he is,” head coach Eli Kell-Abrams said. “He’s been in a walking boot for a month, and the way he’s been able to fight through pain, fight through adversity, fight through off-court stuff and still not make it about him, and be able to galvanize and lead the group is really impressive.”
The Charge had a chance to win what was a back-and-forth game late. In the last minute, they missed two crucial defensive rebounds and had two bad turnovers. The Go-Go took advantage of those miscues to put the game away.
“It’s one of the tough things about a single-elimination tournament,” Kell-Abrams said. “Sometimes, if you just don’t have it, you don’t have it. I think defensively we weren’t able to guard the ball and rebound, which we knew were going to be big keys to the game.”
Cleveland didn’t have an answer for Alondes Williams. He poured in 39 points and four assists while going 12-21 from the field. This included contributing 24 in the second half to help the Go-Go erase a seven-point deficit at the break. Former Cleveland Cavaliers two-way player Chris Livingston also supplied 27 points and nine rebounds in the victory.
The Charge were led by 25 points from Brown on 8-15 shooting to go along with 10 assists and seven boards. Cavs two-way player Olivier Sarr finished with 22 points on 8-10 shooting with four rebounds and a block.
Even though this wasn’t the way the Charge wanted the season to end, they aren’t going to remember this season for what happened on Tuesday.
“A couple missed helps, a couple tough switches, and a couple of offensive rebounds shouldn’t define what’s been one of the most successful years in Charge history,” Kell-Abrams said. “With the development we’ve had, headlined by Tristan Enaruna. … We knocked the development part out of the park.”
The Charge did knock that out of the park. They had six call-ups (seven if you want to count Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who didn’t play with the Charge, but started on a two-way deal). That includes losing Killian Hayes, who was having an MVP-caliber season, before he was signed by the Sacramento Kings.
Kell-Abrams attributes Brown for being a big reason why they were able to keep things on the rails and attract more talent — like Riley Minix, Malaki Branham, and Sarr — to replace the guys they lost to call-ups.
“[The G League] encourages you to be selfish,” Kell-Abrams said. “You think points will get you called up. You think, ‘How many shots am I getting?’ And D.B. says, ‘You know what, I’m going to pass the ball. I’m going to pass the ball in a league that doesn’t want to.’ And that’s why everybody wants to come play with him. That’s why we were able to get Riley Minix here to play with him. That’s what we were able to get Malaki Branham…Olivier Sarr. Like, these guys want to come be here.”
While many will remember this season for the on-court success that the Charge had, Brown will remember it for how special this group was.
“The stuff I remember most is always the stuff off the court,” Brown said. “I’ll just remember things from after team dinners, going out to Top Golf or doing stuff like that with the staff and everybody. That’s the stuff I’ll remember more than anything we did on the court, although that was very successful.”
Before the season, Kell-Abrams laid out two goals. He wanted to develop NBA talent and be successful on the court. He did both. The Charge finished with their second-best winning percentage for a regular season in their history and had numerous players called up. This was a successful season, even though it didn’t end how they wanted it to.
“Forty-eight minuts of not our best basketball doesn’t define us,” Kell-Abrams said.
