One revelation that seems to be coming to fruition this season is that the Eastern Conference might actually be as tough as we all thought it would be before the season began. The Cleveland Cavaliers experienced that firsthand yesterday when they traveled to Toronto to take on the 6th-place Raptors.
After getting their doors blown off by the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night, they got back to their winning ways, when the Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons 102-94 on Sunday evening. Unfortunately they couldn’t tally another win last night up north.
The Cavaliers fell to the Raptors 100-88, in a sluggish game on Monday night. Raptors wing OG Anunoby led all players in minutes (37) and points (20) last night to guide Toronto to the win. Pascal Siakam also pitched in with another double-double for the season, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in his return from injury.
The Cavs had a dreadful shooting night, connecting on only 37% of their shots, including only 17% (7-of-38) from three. Donovan Mitchell had a rare off night, finishing with only 8 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field. Evan Mobley kept the Cavaliers alive all night with his defending and rebounding, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Cavs from suffering their 8th loss of the year.
Before the Cavs continue their tough Eastern Conference stretch against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, let’s take a look at one stud and one dud from last night’s ugly loss to that scrappy Toronto squad.
Cavaliers stud: Evan Mobley
Even though he had a rather slow start to the season, Evan Mobley has been heating up for the Cavaliers recently. Last night he finished with 18 points, while shooting 50% from the field. He also led all players in rebounding, finishing with 15, which was huge, as the Cavs were without center Jarrett Allen who missed the game with a lower back injury.
One of the main gripes against Mobley last year was his rebounding. He averaged only 8.3 last year as a 6-foot-11 big man, which in many people’s opinions, just wasn’t enough.
Well, he has taken that criticism and ran with it. In his last five games, he has averaged 11.4 rebounds per game, and Cleveland is 3-2 in those games. While his rebounding isn’t the key to the Cavaliers’ success necessarily, it’s definitely helping them be more competitive with the best teams throughout the league.
Offensively, there is still a lot for Mobley to improve on, but that will come with time. You can just see how much more offensively aware he is about his shooting, spacing, and passing in just his second year in the league. On top of that, he’s still a force defensively. Mobley’s ability to affect and block shots without fouling is a skill that very few players have in the entire NBA.
Overall, it was another great performance from the second-year player, even if he was 0-4 from three.
Cavaliers dud: Three-point shooting
While Monday night was a tough and ugly loss, a lot of it can be blamed on the Cavaliers’ three-point shooting. However, it isn’t all bad for J.B. Bickerstaff and company, considering offensively, they were getting a lot of open looks, they just weren’t able to knock them down. The offense wasn’t as efficient with Mitchell having an off night, but they were still able to get open looks.
This season the Cavs are the NBA’s fourth-best three-point shooting team, hitting them at a 38% rate. Only the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, and Golden State Warriors shoot better from deep than the Cavaliers. Last night Cleveland was only 7-of-38 from three, which was easily their lowest percentage and number of made threes on the year.
Hopefully, Monday night was just some sort of anomaly. With that being said, it could come back to haunt the Cavaliers later in the season, or in the playoffs. Hey, even Larry Bird didn’t make all of his three-point attempts.
But, it’s important that the Cavs still focus on their inside game and the development of Mobley and Allen. We’ve seen a lot of good teams over the past couple of years stumble because they were too reliant on the three-point shot.
Now the Cavs will have to rest up and get their minds focused on a good 76ers team, who has been struggling through some injuries. Tyrese Maxey will not be available on Wednesday, and James Harden may not play as well.
However, the Cavs still need to come out and hit their shots to get back into the win column. As I noted earlier, they had open looks all night on Monday night, it just so happened their legs didn’t seem to be there.
Cleveland will play five of the next six games in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, with the only road game coming this weekend in New York at the Knicks. The Cavaliers have only lost one home game all season, so they should be comfortable through this tough stretch.
Let’s just hope they start hitting their open shots again, or there could be a couple more results like last night in the near future.