Cavs dud: Ball security
Of course, sans Garland, one had to expect that there could be some clunkiness here, and especially against players such as Ayo Dosumu and Alex Caruso. For further context, Dosunmu registered a whopping five steals, DeMar DeRozan had two and Caruso in bench minutes had two.
That said, Cleveland having 20 turnovers (to 20 assists) here, and struggling to close late, was still less than ideal, to say the least. That played some into Chicago registering 21 fastbreak points, as opposed to Cleveland’s 10.
Donovan Mitchell had a rough night overall, as he was five-of-16 from the field, zero-of-six from three and had seven turnovers in a de facto lead playmaker role for much of the contest on Saturday. Caris LeVert, despite coming up with a solid game generally, had four giveaways himself, and both likely had some turnovers simply from trying to initiate and make plays in gaps that weren’t necessarily there.
Nonetheless, the giveaways down the stretch have been an issue in a number of instances this season, particularly on the road, and they reared their ugly head in the fourth. As noted, Love was responsible for three of those as well, and some stagnation from Cleveland late, and lack of effectiveness when Mitchell was doubled, led to some rough possessions.
Again, one has to know the importance of Garland for the Cavaliers, and that factored into these issues, objectively. And hopefully Ricky Rubio being back soon can help stabilize operations in some stretches, too, for what it’s worth.