Cavs should have ‘get right’ game vs. Wizards on Thursday

The Cleveland Cavaliers are coming off losses in their last five games, but they should be in-line for a “get right” game on Thursday against the Washington Wizards.

It’s been a bad stretch for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland has lost their last five games, which included a disastrous fourth quarter at the Chicago Bulls on Saturday to conclude the team’s six-game road trip, and Cleveland followed that up with a ridiculously awful second half on MLK Day versus the New York Knicks.

On a positive note, the Cavaliers should be in-line for a “get-right” game on Thursday, as the Washington Wizards come to town.

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Washington has the NBA’s worst defensive rating thus far in the 2019-20 season, according to NBA.com, and are not killing it record-wise, either, as they’re just ahead of the Cavs record-wise at 14-29.

Yes, I get that the Cavaliers are only 12-32 and have the league’s second-worst defensive rating.

That being said, the Wine and Gold are due for a nice outing, given that on the offensive end, the Cavs should be able to get penetration easily and I’d think get a bunch of good looks from the perimeter.

Darius Garland, who is amid the best month of his career to this point, had a heck of an outing in Cleveland’s first meeting with the Wiz on the road in November, too.

He had 15 points and six assists in that one, and it was good to see that in a game that was nationally-televised on ESPN at the time.

I’d expect Collin Sexton to have his imprint on the game, too. Both of those pieces struggled mightily against the Knicks on Monday, as our own Corey Casey demonstrated, but against the rebuilding Wiz and players such as Isaiah Thomas and Ish Smith to some degree, Cleveland’s young guards should be just fine.

Though Gary Payton II has done well defensively in his Washington stint, along with realistically Isaac Bonga, as Wiz of Awes’ Ethan Smith hit on, the rest of Washington hasn’t had much success on D.

It’s not as if the Cavs have many good defenders, and like the Wiz, given that they are playing so many young pieces, off-ball lapses come too much.

Alfonzo McKinnie, who is reportedly going to start a second 10-day deal with the Cavs on Thursday, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, should give Cleveland head coach John Beilein and the coaching staff a lift there, though.

As far as other matchups, I’d expect Kevin Love to have his way with the likes of Rui Hachimura and/or Davis Bertans.

Hachimura is a promising big for the future for the Wizards, and is putting up 13.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and Bertans has exceeded expectations with 15.3 points per outing for the Wiz, which is second on the team, as noted by NBA.com.

Bertans is hitting 42.4% of his three-point attempts, and only nine NBA players have hit more three-pointers in 2019-20, per Basketball Reference.

Anyhow, though I’d expect Washington and Bradley Beal to fill it up, along with potentially Troy Brown Jr. in some respect, as Brown has come on this season, as Smith emphasized, Love, Tristan Thompson and the Cavs should be well-rested and I’d think will be very effective offensively.

The Action Network, for reference as you can see below, has the Cavs slightly favored and the overwhelming majority of the bets at this point have come in on the Wine and Gold.

I’d fully expect a “get right” effort for Cleveland, as the Cavs controlled most of the first meeting between these two teams on the road, and even with 5 man Thomas Bryant being back for Washington, them not having solid big Moritz Wagner still due to a reported left ankle injury should play right into Cleveland taking this one at home.

Cleveland won’t have the energy provided by Kevin Porter Jr., who is seemingly going to be sidelined through the All-Star break with his reported left knee sprain, nor will the Cavs have John Henson, as The Athletic‘s Kelsey Russo said was on the team’s injury report due to lower back soreness.

Moreover, the Wiz are playing the second leg of a back-to-back, and I’d think Cleveland should cover that referenced spread, and frankly, win by a few possessions here. Washington lost narrowly to the Miami Heat on Wednesday on the road, and it was pretty surprising that the Wiz took that one to overtime.

Miami pulled it out 134-129, but Washington got a big night out of Bradley Beal, and pieces such as Bertans with 24 points and four assists, and even former Cav, Jordan McRae, who had 14 points and five assists, per ESPN, kept the Wiz right there near the end.

Though the Heat did rally, Washington came back from a 19-point halftime deficit, and again, lost respectively in OT.

So again, the Cleveland Cavaliers should be in-line for a good performance and a rebound win on Thursday.