DETROIT — Maybe the “Money Merrill” nickname should morph into “Maniacal Merrill” because Cavaliers backup shooting guard Sam Merrill has a competitive edge his teammates claim borders on crazy.
The Cavs benefitted from Merrill’s relentlessness in a 4-3 series victory over the Detroit Pistons in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals, and there is no doubt they will need more of it against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Game 1 between the fourth-seeded Cavs and third-seeded Knicks is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 19, at Madison Square Garden.
“They’re firing on all cylinders right now,” Merrill said. “We know it’s going to be a challenge. But you just keep getting better, just keep growing, keep working through things. We feel confident about the group that we have, the talent that we have, the coaching that we have, that we’ll be able to give ourselves a real chance.”
Role players can swing playoff series, and the 30-year-old Merrill has produced invaluable moments for the Cavs this postseason.
Merrill’s most notable contribution thus far occurred in Cleveland’s dominant 125-94 win over the Pistons in Game 7 on May 17 at Little Caesars Arena. He scored a playoff career-high 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field (5 of 8 on 3-pointers) and tallied one rebound, two assists and a steal in 25 minutes off the bench. He finished with a plus-minus rating of plus-22.
“That’s how the playoffs are. You need a Sam Merrill game. You need a Dennis Schroder game,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said.
During the winner-take-all Game 7 in Detroit, Merrill drew a hard charging foul from Pistons forward Ausar Thompson and took a while to rise from the floor with 3:37 left in the first quarter. Merrill used his hand to check his mouth after the collision. In Cleveland’s Game 6 letdown at home, Thompson received a Flagrant 1 foul for grabbing Merrill’s neck and shoving him down while fighting through a screen.
None of it stopped Merrill.
“We talk about Max Strus being the maniac. Sam’s quietly right there. He’s just not as vocal as Max,” Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell said. “I’m glad he has his moments like this where the world can see it. I think a lot of times it gets overlooked.
“He does it whether it’s a hammy, it’s an ankle, it’s a hand, it’s whatever, a sickness, the birth of his kid. He’s just like, ‘Man, I don’t care. I’m here with you guys.’ And I think that just speaks to the group. When you have guys like Sam Merrill, I’ve seen him my whole career, and just to see the growth from him as a player, not just as a 3-point shooter, but as a guy we can depend on in every situation, it’s huge.”
To Mitchell’s point, Merrill has pushed through a hand/finger injury, a hamstring issue and an illness this postseason. A left hamstring strain sidelined him for most of Game 1 and all of Game 2 against the Pistons. The Cavs lost both games but fired back and eventually advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2018 and the first time without LeBron James since 1992.
“I think our resiliency throughout this run so far has been really important and has really grown,” Merrill said.
“Money Merrill” proving he can moonlight as “Maniacal Merrill” has played a part.
Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavaliers’ Sam Merrill is ‘quietly’ a maniac, Donovan Mitchell reveals
Reporting by Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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