The Cleveland Cavaliers are back in action on Saturday as they host the Denver Nuggets. Cleveland last played on Wednesday at home, and nearly took down an undermanned Boston Celtics squad.
The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ biggest issue coming into this game on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets is the status of several key rotation pieces. Tristan Thompson (left knee contusion) and Andre Drummond (left calf strain) have been out of the lineup of late, while Darius Garland continues to deal with a left groin injury.
According to the Cavs and h/t Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies, Garland was likely going to be out versus Denver and against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday and will likely return “next week at the earliest.”
Furthermore, Garland was ruled out for Saturday’s game, h/t The Athletic’s Kelsey Russo.
You can also add Kevin Porter Jr.‘s name to those ruled out, as Russo noted, and he was reportedly put in the NBA’s concussion protocol after sustaining a head injury against the Boston Celtics, as KJG’s Dan Gilinsky touched on.
A bit of good news for Cleveland is both Thompson and Drummond practiced on Friday and were full participants, as Davies hit on.
Andre Drummond (calf) and Tristan Thompson (knee) went through everything in practice today.
— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) March 6, 2020
J.B. Bickerstaff says #Cavs will see how they respond tomorrow before determining status vs. Nuggets.
Getting those two bigs back, who are questionable, especially against a team like Denver that is 42-20 on the year, will be important, and that leads me to the first reason to tune into this one.
#1: Will we see TT and/or Drummond back, and if not, how do the Cavs do?
With Nuggets star big man Nikola Jokic leading the way with 20.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game, as indicated by NBA.com, Cleveland would greatly benefit if both Thompson and Drummond, who are each solid individual interior and active team defenders at that, were back in the lineup.
Not having those two would cause problems for an already thin Cavaliers’ rotation. In their last game, all five of Cleveland’s starters played 35-plus minutes with Collin Sexton playing 45 minutes and Cedi Osman receiving 43 minutes, as shown by ESPN.
With two more big men in the rotation, it would allow Cleveland to rotate fresh bodies in to contend with the likes of Jokic, Paul Millsap and Thompson could help on Jerami Grant.
However, the starting lineup of Sexton, Matthew Dellavedova, Osman, Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. has been surprisingly effective over the past two games versus Boston and the Utah Jazz. That lineup has been on the floor for 24 minutes this month over two games and has a net rating of 15.5, according to NBA.com.
Granted, it is a small sample size, but those five have meshed well when playing together offensively with an offensive rating of 134.7.
Though the Cavaliers are dealing with several injuries, Denver does come into the game just 4-3 since the All-Star break, which includes a loss to the 14-49 Golden State Warriors. In their most recent game, Denver nearly fell at the 21-41 Charlotte Hornets, winning 114-112.
Since the break, Denver is allowing 7.4 more points per game, and in that same span, their defensive rating is 117.9, which is the third-worst in the NBA. Even the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have the league’s second-worst defensive rating on the year (115.1), have a better defensive rating than Denver in that span (114.7), albeit the sample size is smaller.
At any rate, Denver has also had problems turning the ball over, and that leads me to the second thing to watch in this one.