Cavs: 3 players key to their upcoming West Coast trip
By John Suchan
The Cleveland Cavaliers got their first well earned win on the season beating the Atlanta Hawks 101-95 Saturday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The comfort of home will be missed now as the Cavs begin their first lengthy West Coast road trip of the season.
The new youngsters like rookie Evan Mobley will get their first taste of competing way out in enemy territory when the Cavaliers start Monday by playing the Denver Nuggets. Mobley has had an outstanding start to the season and he will be one of several Wine and Gold members to have a big impact on how the team does over the next two weeks. The NBA scheduling gods did some strange planning, as KJG’s Josh Ungar mentioned, especially for the Cavs in this first go-round on the road.
After the Cavaliers play the Denver Nuggets they go to Los Angeles to first face the Clippers on Wednesday and then the Lakers and LeBron James on Friday. No rest for the weary as the Cavs take flight to play the Phoenix Suns next Saturday. This is where the Gods got weird as they make Cleveland go back to the East Coast to face the Charlotte Hornets on Monday Nov. 1. The team finally returns home to play one game against the Portland Trailblazers on November 3rd before being made to play two more games on the road.
If you’re counting that’s seven of their next eight games on the road for the good guys all in a span of 14 days.
Players like veteran guard Ricky Rubio and forward and aging Kevin Love will have to help this young team through this maze of games and keep that energy high. While the team played relatively well in all three games this past opening week, these next series of games will be a big step for the team if they can pull out some late night (regarding Eastern time) victories.
Let’s look a bit more at Mobley, Rubio and Love and why their games will be important to the team’s success over the next two weeks.