Cavs News: Off shooting night, Mobley is bright spot, more clarity on Wade

On Sunday evening, the Cleveland Cavaliers were set to face the New York Knicks coming off two convincing home victories. Cleveland took care of the Orlando Magic on Friday and handled a shorthanded Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.

The issue was, on Sunday, Cleveland couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat, as they had a season-low point total and shot 34.9 percent overall in a 92-81 loss. The Cavaliers lost to the Knicks, a club that had lost five straight games, largely because Cleveland shot eight-of-35 from beyond the arc, and Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell went three-of-nine and two-of-11 from deep.

Cleveland got seemingly a bunch of quality looks, they just couldn’t them at crucial times. The Knicks do deserve their credit, though, and New York’s work on the glass and turnovers, albeit for both teams, were a big part of the story yesterday.

The end result was a forgettable game, and Mitchell’s homecoming at New York, where it seemed he’d be traded in the offseason, was a letdown. Cleveland has to fix some things on the road, where they’ve gone 5-8 this season, but the Cavs and Mitchell have to shake it off.

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For a bright spot, in a pretty dismal performance, Evan Mobley once again was impactful on both ends in filling in at the 5 for much of the outing with Jarrett Allen (back) out. Mobley registered his fifth double-double in his last seven games with 11 points and 10 rebounds on Sunday, and tacked on three assists.

Along with that, while Cleveland and Mobley at times did have some problems in the defensive rebounding department, Mobley did have another impressive game on that end for much of it. He was consistently in the right spots to help, and in the contest, tallied four blocks. He’s had two or more blocks in three of the past four games.

Regarding other Cavaliers news from Sunday, the Wine and Gold received some more clarity on the Dean Wade injury, following Saturday’s update. Per the Cavs and as h/t Spencer Davies of BasketballNews.com, Wade has an AC sprain in his left shoulder, and is expected to be out for three-to-four weeks.

Lamar Stevens, Cedi Osman and two-way Mamadi Diakite, who was a part of Cleveland’s starting unit on Sunday, are guys that the Cavs will need to step up. The bench play generally will be crucial as well.

NBA news

On Sunday, there were plenty of clubs in action, with some performances, in particular, that likely caught fans’ eyes around the league. The Boston Celtics’ red-hot offense wasn’t necessarily sizzling, but they did do enough defensively to defeat the Brooklyn Nets, who are still figuring things out. Ben Simmons’ calf strain is something to monitor for Brooklyn as well, as they try to get him more comfortable and further into the fold looking onward.

In other news, the Sacramento Kings got some nice scoring balance in their 110-101 win over the Chicago Bulls, and Malik Monk’s 20 points off the bench helped propel them to that W.

Also, Jose Alvarado, who is largely known for his pesky defense, and come-from-behind steals in secondary transition, had a career scoring night with 38 points in the New Orleans Pelicans’ 121-106 win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets yesterday. They’ve won their last four games, and have moved up to No. 2 in the Western Conference; congrats to Alvarado, too; what a success story he’s become with the Pels.

Next up for the Cavs: On Tuesday, the Cavaliers will next face off against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that’s played much better of late.