On Saturday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers were looking to head into the new year on the right note, and avoid their fourth straight loss. The Cavaliers were 0-2 on the week with losses to the Brooklyn Nets and then Indiana Pacers, and had lost last Friday versus the Toronto Raptors.
Fortunately, in what wasn’t the prettiest game, the Cavaliers were able to get back in the win column following what was still a pretty strong homestand. Cleveland prevailed over the Chicago Bulls on the road on New Year’s Eve, and despite a turnover-filled closing stretch, the Cavs did enough defensively in the outing, and would force DeMar DeRozan into a tough final shot, before winning 103-102.
In the game, and though a cold fourth quarter didn’t help, the Cavaliers’ set defense was successful for much of it, and while the Cavs were only 12-of-19 from the foul line, Chicago was 17-of-24 themselves. The Cavaliers were led by Caris LeVert in a spot start this go-round with 23 points, too, to go with seven rebounds.
More Cavs news
Darius Garland was questionable heading into Saturday night’s Cavs-Bulls game with a right thumb sprain, which occurred in Cleveland’s loss to the Pacers on Thursday, and he wasn’t in action. It’s another ailment he’ll have to endure, in a season where he’s had plenty of them already, and has been continually getting hit by opponents.
From the jump, Garland missed time with an eye laceration, later missed time with knee soreness and also earlier in the season was fighting sickness. All in all, while he hasn’t missed a ton of time thus far, it hasn’t been the smoothest sailing for Garland, given the constant hits by opponents it’s seemed, and he’s had some inconsistencies as a shooter.
Even still, the production has still typically been there for DG, and he did have a 46-point explosion on Monday against Brooklyn. Hopefully this thumb issue doesn’t linger for an extended period, but it’s clearly something to keep monitoring. Cleveland, in the mean time, set to get Ricky Rubio back is a positive, at least.
Also making a spot start was Kevin Love for Evan Mobley here, with Mobley sidelined with ankle soreness, and Love was huge. He had 20 points on seven-of-15 shooting, and most notably, was five-of-11 from three and added nine rebounds.
It was great to see from Love in a nice shooting rhythm, and frankly, sans Garland and Mobley, the Cavaliers needed the shooting. Love’s had his moments of late after a rough patch, and maybe this one can give him another gear, along with Rubio back seemingly soon.
NBA news
In a piece recently published discussing latest NBA Power Rankings, Scott Rafferty of Sporting News gave his take on the pulse leaguewide, and gave his New Year’s resolution for each team.
For the Cavaliers in that sense, he said for the Cavs to “find an upgrade” at small forward. The Cavs are rumored to be expected to seek an additional short-term wing option via the trade market with the deadline next month, per a report from ESPN’s Zach Lowe (subscription required).
For the Cavaliers, especially with Dean Wade having been injured, and with other current options having their flaws as well, one could foresee Lowe’s report checking out. Perhaps potential targets such as Jae Crowder and Joe Harris, among others such as Bojan Bogdanovic, could be in-play at some point.
In any case, you can view check out more on Rafferty’s piece involving the Cavaliers and the other NBA squads at this link as we head into the new calendar year.
Next up: The Cavs face the Bulls once again on Monday night, with that matchup being at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.