CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kevin Love was confused when he didn’t see Jordan Clarkson run onto the court moments before tipoff Monday night.

Then Love saw teammate Tristan Thompson, who was lagging behind. Thompson said one word to Love.

Utah.

“I said, ‘Utah what?’ Then he said, ‘Jordan,’” Love told cleveland.com. “I fell to the ground. This one hurts for me. That is my guy. We just hit it off when he got here a few years ago. He became a really close friend of mine. It’s really tough.”

Once Love -- and many others -- learned of the abrupt trade between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz, one that scratched Clarkson from the lineup about 30 minutes after he had gone through his usual on-court pregame routine, they all took turns running to the back, saying goodbye and wishing Clarkson well at his next stop.

At least, they got that opportunity.

“There are some that hurt, especially when you have no idea,” Love told cleveland.com. “It’s not like they need to tell me, it just hurts. They don’t owe me anything. Doesn’t make it easier.”

Players understand the business side. Many have been through this before -- seeing teammates whisked away and sent packing in an instant. They all signed up for the reality long ago. The Cavs made at least two right-before-the-game swaps last season, dealing Sam Dekker and George Hill first in December and then Kyle Korver during warmups in Oklahoma City a few weeks later.

According to sources, the conversations between Cleveland and Utah started last week in Las Vegas at the G League Showcase. It wasn’t until Monday the two sides finally agreed on compensation, with the Cavs landing 2014 first-round pick Dante Exum and two second-rounders in exchange for Clarkson, who is expected to boost Utah’s 29th-ranked bench.

“He’s a great player,” Matthew Dellavedova said of Exum, his fellow Aussie.

The trade has many layers. While injury-prone Exum is the kind of lightning-in-a-bottle move the Cavs need to make, they also knew Clarkson was likely leaving in free agency following the season. Sources say the Cavs didn’t feel confident about their chances of getting a first-round pick for Clarkson in this market, so they took a pair of future seconds -- a 2022 from San Antonio and a 2023 from Golden State, sources say. The move puts Cleveland about $5.1 million below the luxury tax threshold, which gives the team more financial flexibility when it comes to other deals. Make no mistake, more are coming between now and the trade deadline on Feb. 6. Players are already bracing for those shakeups.

For the 27-year-old spark plug, he was said to be doing fine after getting the news. He has a chance to boost his value on a contender and perhaps get another crack at the postseason.

But it’s clear this move, one that aligns with the Cavs’ future goals, momentarily shook the locker room Monday night.

The timing was part of that. Clarkson was coming off his best game of the year, pouring in 33 points in a win against Memphis on Friday night. He was a key piece of Cleveland’s revamped second unit, a quintet that had been building continuity and solidifying head coach John Beilein’s rotation. Clarkson was even being praised by Beilein -- for his evolving defense, coachability, attention to detail and hunter mentality -- about two hours before the trade.

“When things like that happen, it’s kind of tough to go out there and be like, ‘Alright, next man up, next man up mentality,'" Collin Sexton said. "He’s part of the scheme, part of what we were going to do tonight, how we were going to use him when he did get out there, so it’s kind of tough.”

The Cavs had no choice. There wasn’t any time to sulk. No chance for reflection. After learning of Clarkson’s departure, it was time to regroup and focus on the Hawks.

“We still went out there and played,” Sexton said. “Even though he’s not on the team, it was like, ‘Let’s get this win for JC.’”

Paying homage to Clarkson, the Cavs erupted for 42 points in the first quarter. They beat the Hawks 121-118, their first three-game streak since LeBron James left for Los Angeles in the summer of 2018. It would have been a much more decisive victory if not for more late-game stumbles that allowed the Hawks to storm back from 13 points down and get a look at a tying 3-pointer from Trae Young in the final seconds.

Clarkson likely would have been on the floor during those three error-filled minutes. Maybe he would have helped make the margin different. One of the team’s usual go-to options in crunch time, he would have been out there trying to stabilize that group, keep them from crumbling.

Without Clarkson, others were given a bigger platform -- another important aspect of Cleveland’s thought process with this deal. In the first game without him, youngsters were asked to fill that void. Kevin Porter Jr. earned nine fourth-quarter minutes, pouring in nine points on 4-of-5 from the field and sparking a huge run that allowed the Cavs to grab control.

“I like being in those moments,” Porter said. “Only thing that doesn't sit with me is my boy not being here. Jordan helped me a lot and made my game easier for me. I was feeding off of him a lot. He's shown me a lot, just how to really read the defense and pick them apart.

“I’ve never been in this situation. It was kind of devastating, but you know, you’ve got a game in two minutes. You kind of just have to snap out of it. For my first time, it was tough. The first three quarters, I kept thinking about it. It’s not a good feeling. But you gotta keep going, you gotta persevere.”

Darius Garland, the other teenager who gravitated to Clarkson in part because they share the Klutch Sports brotherhood, was another beneficiary of the Clarkson trade.

Garland has been on the bench late in games. It wasn’t by design and performance didn’t have much to do with it. There just wasn’t always room for the rookie in the closing group. Sexton is the team’s leading scorer. He’s going to be on the court late. Love and Thompson need to be as well. Cedi Osman is the team’s best option at small forward. And Clarkson became the closer and a go-to scoring option because of his innate ability to create. With Clarkson out of the mix, there was an opening for Garland.

He scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. The two youngsters at the center of this rebuild -- Garland and Porter -- combined for 19 points in crunch time. They scored the first 17 for the Cavs to open the fourth. That development, and the experience the two will now gain late in games without obstacles to that playing time, was at the center of the trade that caught everyone off guard Monday night.

“The young guys right now, we’ve got to play through their mistakes because those are happening out there too,” Beilein said. “But the two of them really see each other, they play well together, everybody should be really excited about the future with those two on the floor.”

More than an hour before Monday’s game, Clarkson strolled into the locker room inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and took over the music. He cranked up the volume and started singing and dancing. Then teammate John Henson joined. Dylan Windler did the same. It was the usual game-night routine at home.

After the dance party, Clarkson went to the court for his scheduled warmup time -- around 6:10 p.m. for a 7:00 tipoff. He worked up a lather and mentally prepared for a matchup against the Hawks. There was no indication of his immediate future changing. Then he got word, as the Cavs pulled him from the lineup and sent him to the back while teammates wondered what was going on. Clarkson’s time in Cleveland was over.

It happened that fast. No one had a chance to process it. Once they did, it was clear what the Cavs had just lost. Clarkson kept things light and loose. He constantly smiled and joked. He tried to mentor the young players. It wasn’t an easy trade. Multiple members of the organization said the same thing: They "hate to see him go.”

And it’s not just because of that consistent scoring punch either.

“He was a great teammate,” Sexton said. “Knew he was going to come in here, play his music, dance a little bit and just be happy and have a good time no matter what. He was going to do what he did whenever he got in the game, which was score the ball. He was just an all-around great teammate.”

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