On Saturday, two familiar foes in the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors meet at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, but in an unfamiliar situation.
After meeting in four consecutive NBA Finals from 2015-2018, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors have a combined 23 wins this season.
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Instead of competing for a championship, these two franchises are now competing for the top pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, with the Warriors having the league’s worst record in 2019-20 at 10-39 and the Cavs being tied with the Atlanta Hawks for having the second-worst record at 13-36.
While this matchup is far from the marquee one it once was, there are still a few reasons to tune into Saturday’s game.
The Warriors’ franchise players, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, both remain out with reported broken hand/index finger metacarpal and ACL injuries. That’s the key reason for the Dubs having the record they have at this point, and that’s obviously understandable.
So leading the way for Golden State this season is newly-acquired (as of this offseason via reported sign-and-trade) guard D’Angelo Russell.
Russell is averaging 24.0 points per game, as noted by NBA.com, and is shooting 37.7 percent from beyond the arc on 9.7 attempts per contest.
As for Cleveland, they are operating at near-full strength.
After resting in a game on Tuesday versus the New Orleans Pelicans seemingly in large part due to a reported struggle with the flu, Darius Garland came back and scored 16 points while dishing out eight assists against the Toronto Raptors in a 115-109 loss, per ESPN, on Thursday.
The guard matchup overall in this game will be one of the main reasons to tune in.