Friday night’s game for the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Brooklyn Nets was a crucial one, to say the least. Both teams heading into that contest were the #8 and #7 seeds in the Eastern Conference, with the four teams for the play-in tournament since having been set, with the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets at #9 and #10 then.
Before the game, I did think that the Cavaliers would find a way to hang around for the contest, and could have a shot at stealing one in Brooklyn. Maybe that was wishful thinking from me, with Jarrett Allen still not being available with his fractured finger. I did think that the Nets would likely win, but that the Cavs would hang around, and cover in that one, in fairness.
As to how the contest ultimately played out, that was, in large part, how it went. Darius Garland and the Cavaliers played decently well, all things considered, even without Ben Simmons (back, return to competition conditioning) still for Brooklyn, nor will he be in the play-in, as a side note.
Despite being down by 15 after the first quarter, the Cavaliers responded well as the game progressed, chipping away in the second quarter, and in the third, the Wine and Gold outscored the Nets 34-21. They even climbed all the way back to take a five-point third entering the fourth quarter.
Still, Kyrie Irving (now cleared for action in home games), Kevin Durant and shooters such as Patty Mills and Seth Curry ended up being too much for Cleveland on Friday night, and the Cavs couldn’t pull it out down the stretch. Durant, for reference, had 36 points, and even with some quality defense on a number of occasions, still shot 11-of-20 and was 10-of-10 from the free throw line.
Curry and Patty Mills had some key shots as well, and Bruce Brown had 18 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and even four blocks. Him knocking in two triples was meaningful for Brooklyn, too.
But there were some notable perfomers in that one for Cleveland, and at least for the Cavs, Evan Mobley looked good from coming back missing five games because of an ankle sprain. Cleveland just ultimately didn’t have enough down the stretch.
With that, we’ll get into our latest stud and dud for the Cavs from this tough loss on Friday to the Nets.
As always, we’ll start with the positive.