The Cleveland Cavaliers have played very well on a road trip against some of the Western Conference’s top teams. They were able to get an upset W over the Denver Nuggets and also the LA Clippers, and even though they weren’t able to pull it off against the Los Angeles Lakers, they had an opportunity to win that game in the fourth quarter.
On a back-to-back and playing their third game in four nights, the Cavaliers were hoping to add another upset win on the road against another one of the best teams in the Western Conference in the Phoenix Suns.
Early on things looked very promising. The Cavaliers came out looking pretty sharp, as they were able to score 31 points in the first quarter, taking a seven-point lead, which had to have had head coach J.B. Bickerstaff feeling encouraged at first. They were able to build a 14-point lead in the mid-second quarter, however, that’s where all the optimism ended. The Suns were able to dig in defensively at that point and really put the clamps on the Cavs.
That defense is what ultimately spearheaded a 22-4 Suns run to end the half. In the third quarter, the Cavs looked like a team that was on a road back-to-back and a team that was indeed playing three games in four nights.
Again the Suns really dug in defensively, but the Cavaliers especially in the third quarter were pretty sloppy with the basketball. It’s the primary reason why Phoenix took a 50-46 halftime lead and why the Suns were up 24 points at one point in the third quarter.
Cleveland deserves a ton of credit for fighting back and even though they never cut it to single digits until it was late, they made things interesting mid-fourth quarter, but the hole they dug was just too big against a team like the Suns and it was just one of those nights.
With that said here, we’ll take a look at standouts and another group/area that left plenty to be desired in this loss to Phoenix for Cleveland, beginning with the positive.