The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to win an ugly and sloppy game in J.B. Bickerstaff’s head coaching debut at the Washington Wizards on the road on Friday, and we’ll touch on a few takeaways from that contest.
This game wasn’t pretty for two teams who have struggled this season, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to win a sloppy game in J.B. Bickerstaff‘s head coaching debut at the Washington Wizards on Friday. This was a nice feel-good win for the young guys and an important one, considering how brutal the Cavs’ schedule is up until the second week of March.
Again this wasn’t pretty on either side, but the Cavs mostly played really hard all night and were able to grind out a win. When you’re a rebuilding team that’s had a long season like the Cavs, when you get down 16 points that can give you every reason to quit.
The Wizards were able to put up 41 points in the first quarter, and were again, up 16 at one point, and a few times they threatened to put this game away, but the Cavaliers were able to get back within striking distance at halftime being down five.
Neither of the focal points for either team played well tonight.
For the Cavs, Kevin Love obviously didn’t have his best game, as he finished the outing with only nine points on three-of-eight shooting and one rebound, per ESPN, but while on the other side Beal did have 26 points, it was on an inefficient nine-of-28 shooting and one-of-10 from three-point land.
Beal was off his game all night missing open shots, including a couple of technical free throws, but the Cavs were able to take advantage of it and pull out a come-from-behind win.