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.
Cavs stud at the Nets: Darius Garland
The clear stud for this contest to me was Darius Garland. He’s always going to be the straw that stirs the Cavs’ drink, and while he’s often started games more balanced, his shot-making, mixed with quality ball-swings, helped get Cleveland back in it.
Admittedly, Garland seemingly was gassed in the fourth quarter, to an extent, and honestly, I can’t blame him for that, but for the vast majority of this contest, he was outstanding in a huge game in the scoring and shot-making sense.
On the night, he finished with 31 points on 12-of-24 shooting, including going 3-of-6 from three-point land. He went 4-of-4 from the free throw line; it did seem that he could’ve had more free throw attempts, frankly; either way, Garland did his part for Cleveland here. That’s nothing new.
Now, Garland had only three assists in this contest, to two turnovers, and there were some forced shots, but it’s not as if there weren’t quality feeds from him that could’ve led to makes for others, clearly. And Garland’s play gave the Cavaliers a spark to get right back into things, and was one of the reasons for the Cavs taking the lead near the end of the third.
From there, I can’t discount Evan Mobley’s play, though. In his return, he had 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, and he most notably had three assists, two blocks and two steals.
Overall, I thought he looked sharp, for the most part, after his absence, and that was a great sign from this contest, regarding the play-in tournament to come, and for Cleveland’s regular season finale versus the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
Cavs dud at the Nets: Defensive rebounding
I was considering going with non-Garland three-point shooting in this one, as Cleveland went 5-of-21 aside from DG from deep, just 23.8 percent. With Garland’s production factored in, the Cavaliers were still just 8-of-27 from three, a 29.6 percent clip.
However, the Cavs did generate plenty of good looks, and I did still think the ball movement was better than only having 19 assists. Cleveland had just eight turnovers as well, for what it’s worth.
So with that sort of thing in mind, in that realm, to me, the overwhelming dud here at the Nets on Friday night was the Cavs’ defensive rebounding. The Nets had 13 offensive boards here, and the kicker was that they had 25 second chance points. The Cavs had 10 offensive boards; unfortunately, they had just six second chance points.
I have to give former Cav Andre Drummond his share of credit on Friday for his offensive rebounds and putbacks, which were a significant part of his 15 points. And even at times when putbacks weren’t there, extra possessions and additional three-point looks for Brooklyn in general off that crushed the Wine and Gold.
I didn’t think that the Cavaliers’ initial defense on a number of those occasions was necessarily substandard. Even still, Cleveland’s defensive rebounding positioning was off in too many instances, and Mobley and Lauri Markkanen, realistically, have had that issue for much of the year, in fairness.
Anyhow, while Brooklyn had some big, crucial runs throughout the contest, and outscored Cleveland 35-19 in the fourth quarter, often when watching this game, I kept coming back to the defensive rebounding woes. That’s lingered over the course of the season, and sans Jarrett Allen again, it was more so apparent.
This outcome wasn’t ideal on Friday, and it seems likely that the Cavs could very well be in the 9-10 play-in game next week, as Milwaukee is another very tough opponent on Sunday, and the Hawks have the tiebreaker over the Cavs. That’s with Brooklyn also moving to #7, too.
It was nice that Mobley was back and very effective, on a positive note, and perhaps we could see Allen back for the play-in. And the Wine and Gold willing their way back into things in this last one was good to see. Maybe they can carry that forward against the Bucks, and end up in the 7-8 contest after all.