After watching one of the best college basketball games in the history of the sport on Saturday night, I was excited to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers go toe-to-toe with the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday evening. While the Cavs did keep it close with the visiting Sixers, they didn’t have enough at the end and wound up losing 112-108.
In the end, it’s another devastating loss for the Cavs, who were poised at one time to possibly win the Eastern Conference. However, injuries have derailed those plans, along with inconsistent play across the board. With three games remaining in the regular season, it’s fair to say they would need to win all three, and get significant help from teams above them, to bypass the play-in. With the injuries mounting, it’s hard to visualize the Cavs making a deep run in the playoffs this season. However, it doesn’t mean this wasn’t a successful season, and there were plenty of bright spots in yesterday’s game.
The Cavs lost on Sunday to the Philadelphia 76ers, likely ending their hopes of climbing out of the play-in tournament. Who stood out from the game?
The leading scorer in the game was Joel Embiid who had 44 points, 17 rebounds, and five blocks. He was also 17-for-20 from the free-throw line. James Harden recorded a triple-double with 21 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds. For the Cavs, Darius Garland led the team in scoring with 23. Garland also dished out four assists, which is very low for him as of late. Caris LeVert pitched in 18 points, but it wasn’t enough, as they couldn’t contain Embiid. With all that being said let’s look at yesterday’s stud and dud.
1 Stud from loss to 76ers: Lamar Stevens
Lamar Stevens is another Cavalier player that I wasn’t really in love with. However, over the past couple of games, he’s impressed. Last night he had 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field. On the defensive end he was great as well, nabbing a steal and blocking three shots.
I’ve talked about this previously, but one of the best parts of Stevens game is that he just always seems to be in the right spot at the right time. Whether it be picking off a pass on the perimeter, or defending tough in the post, Stevens has truly bought in to head coach JB Bickerstaff’s plan.
It will be interesting to see what the Cavs end up doing with Stevens this off-season. Earlier this year he and the Cavs agreed to fully guarantee his contract to the end of this season for $1.5 million. It’s looking more and more likely that the Cavs will end up keeping their first-round draft pick this season, so they could use that pick to grab a much-needed wing player. They also could decide to run it back with Stevens and see what he can turn into.
Either way, Stevens was a major reason the Cavs were able to keep it close last night. He’s playing some of his best basketball right now, so hopefully it pays off for him and the Cavs.
1 Dud from loss to 76ers: Isaac Okoro
Isaac Okoro is a very intriguing young wing. At times he looks great in open space and can create his own shot. However, he’s best when he’s attacking the basket and drawing fouls. On defense, he’s probably the Cavaliers’ best defender one-on-one.
So, it was a little bit odd to me that there were plenty of times when Okoro wasn’t guarding James Harden. What is the point of having Okoro out on the floor if he’s not going to take away the other team’s best wing player? On top of that, while it looked like his offensive game was on the rise, it’s kind of sputtered out the past couple of games.
However, last night there was one statistic that really stood out to me about Okoro’s game: he was 0-for-2 from the field. He shot the ball twice in an NBA basketball game. So if Okoro is not going to guard Harden, and on the offensive side is only going to take two shots, there is no reason to keep playing him. I get it, this was a bad game from Okoro, but he needs to start showing major signs of improvement soon, because the Cavs, when fully healthy, are probably a good two-way wing player away from being title contenders. So I would hope he can have a positive impact on the Cavs going forward.
The Cavs hung tough against one of the favorites in the East, missing their two best big men against an MVP-level center. They played well, but unfortunately, it was another loss added to the ledger in a late-season spiral.