CLEVELAND — Almost exactly a year ago, on Dec. 20, 2023, Sam Merrill scored his career-high, 27 points, against the Utah Jazz, hitting 8-of-14 from beyond the arc.
The former Utah State University standout is known for his silky shot and his ability form the 3-point line, but he has struggled this season, especially in the past couple of weeks.
He finished last season shooting 40.4% from deep for the Cavaliers, but through Cleveland’s first 22 games of the season, he was shooting just a tick above 36%.
Then, over the Cavs last seven games leading up to Monday night, he hit just 23.1% of his 3-point attempts.
Cavaliers teammate and former Jazzman Donovan Mitchell sits next to Merrill on the team’s flights when they travel, and Mitchell has been a voice of encouragement as Merrill has worked his way through a shooting slump.
“I told him just continue to stay with it,” Mitchell said. “He’s missing the shots and we’re still winning. Imagine when he makes shots, you know what I’m saying?
“Don’t get upset. I can see if we were losing and it was all on him, but he puts that pressure on himself, which I respect. It’s why I love him, but I’m also like, ‘You’re the same guy. It’s the same routine. Just work hard.”
On Monday night, Merrill broke out of the slump, going 6-of-11 from deep for 20 points to help lead the Cavaliers to a win over his hometown Jazz.
“I kind of knew it was gonna happen, because he played his home team,” Mitchell said. “He won’t say it, but like, last year, he had his career high against them.
“I’ll say it for him, playing against your hometown team is always great. That’s what he needed. He needed to get that before the holidays, then get the time to rest and enjoy. But Sam Merrill, no one on this team is worried about Sam. He’s gonna continue to be who he is — work hard, knock down shots — and tonight you saw him with 20 points. It’s huge.”
For Merrill, he wasn’t so certain that he was going to have a good game against the Jazz. He had been starting to get a little superstitious about the extra work he was putting in and how much he was thinking about being in a slump, so he stepped away for a couple of days to try to get his mind right.
“Maybe last week felt like I was probably overworking a little bit just to try and get out of it and felt like I was starting to get tired,” Merrill said, “so I just took a couple days off and just got away from the court. ... I feel obviously very confident in my abilities and I feel like I’ve had some bad luck so far this year, so just keep shooting, keep being aggressive and felt like tonight was an opportunity.
“I wouldn’t say there’s anything crazy different when I play Utah, but it is fun to play that team.”
Merrill got his second start of the season on Monday night and added four assists and three steals to his 20 points in the Cavaliers’ victory.