Every NBA team feels like they’re the ones most impacted by injuries. No team makes it through a season unscathed, and especially given the current NBA’s conservative approach to injury management nearly every player in the league is taking time off. The Cleveland Cavaliers are certainly no exception.
The Twitter account “Man Games Lost NBA” uses data to actually approximate this, proving which teams are truly suffering from missed players compared to the rest of the league. It paints a difficult, but also hopeful, picture for the Cavs: they’ve been among the most injured teams in the league this season.
While no team comes anywhere close to the Orlando Magic in terms of games missed due to injury, as of this week they were tied for the second-most games missed due to injury. What’s more, they rank third when the above list is weighted by player value — that is, how much value over replacement has been missing. The Cavs have been shorthanded and it’s been good players missing games.
The good news is that despite missing time Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Kevin Love are all back in the lineup, and Ricky Rubio is due back soon. It’s less clear when Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade will be back, but neither is expected to be missing long-term. Getting the full roster back should give the Cavs yet another boost; that’s a scary proposition for the rest of the league.
More Cavs news
Bleacher Report recently ran a piece that highlighted the “most troubling flaw” for each NBA contender. What was the flaw for the Cavs? The chemistry of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland together in the backcourt. Author Greg Swartz points to the fact that the offense is much better when one or the other is off the court, and worse when both are on the court together.
Here on the site John Suchan went deep on the Cavs’ extended homestand thus far, a 3-0 success thus far. He highlighted three key takeaways from those three games and, unsurprisingly, they were filled with optimism. As Olaf from Disney’s Frozen would say, “All good things, all good things.”
NBA news
The Golden State Warriors surfaced briefly over the weekend to beat the Toronto Raptors, but with two more rotation players going down due to sickness they had nothing to muster in The Big Apple. The New York Knicks, now winners of eight straight, beat the defending champs by 38 points.
Out West, the showdown was between the top two teams in the Western Conference, with Ja Morant going off for 35 points and 10 assists but not getting enough help from his teammates (no other Grizzlies player had more than 11) in a 14-point loss to the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic had a “3-of-a-kind” by scoring 13 points with 13 rebounds and 13 assists (he was also a +13 for the game).
Coming up: The Cleveland Cavaliers continue their homestand by hosting the Milwaukee Bucks, who are expected to be without Khris Middleton tonight.