Cavs key first half dates: Jan. 17, 18 at the Washington Wizards
The second key first half for the Cavs is a back-to-back at the Washington Wizards on Jan. 17, and then on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan.18. Due to trying to help prevent/reduce spread of COVID-19, the NBA is having teams at times play “series”-type sets of games, and this will be Cleveland’s second set of those, with the first being at the Orlando Magic on Jan. 4 and 6.
To me, it will be nice to see the Cavaliers on MLK Day for one in action, and in a general sense, this should be a matchup where we could see both teams getting up-and-down and/or featuring youngsters a bunch in stretches throughout.
The Wizards ended up drafting wing Deni Avdija, a prospect that the Cavs were reportedly leading up to the draft, stated to have been really high on. Cleveland didn’t end up drafting Deni, though, but perhaps in this one, we could see Okoro-Avdija matchups at times? That’d be a cool element to this set of games.
From there, given that, per a report from Forbes‘ Evan Dammarell, Bickerstaff stated that seemingly in general, Kevin Love and/or Andre Drummond could potentially rest during I’d think the second leg of back-to-backs, maybe Cleveland could look to run more?
We’ll see, but Larry Nance Jr. going up against Rui Hachimura and/or Davis Bertans, who hit a scorching 42.4 percent from three-point range on 8.7 attempts per game last season (which is bonkers!) for stretches, regardless, should be a matchup to watch.
And lastly, it’ll be interesting to see how the Cavs and Darius Garland look against the now-Russell Westbrook/Bradley Beal backcourt for Washington. The Wiz dealt away John Wall, who was tremendous for them for years when healthy, and a lottery-protected first-round pick for Westbrook.
Perhaps some Collin Sexton/Kevin Porter Jr. matchups at both ends versus Westbrook should make some real competition, anyhow.