It was one of those nights for the Cleveland Cavaliers as they lost to the Denver Nuggets 121-108 in the first game of their Western road trip. The Cavs had come into the game winners of three in a row, granted that all three games were very close.
Cleveland has had its share of close games this season. In many of these games the Cavs have had to work to get back into games in the second half and they’ve been fortunate enough to pull off a few of them because they have several outstanding players, including their new star, Donovan Mitchell.
Mitchell in this game was on the bench resting and should be back in the lineup when they play the Phoenix Suns Sunday evening. Mitchell had quite the week in which he scored 71 points in the Cavs’ comeback win against the Chicago Bulls on Monday. Only seven players in NBA history have scored 70-plus points in a game, so his talents were certainly missed in this game against the Nuggets.
The Nuggets are quickly becoming one of the best teams in the NBA this season. They are winners of 12 of their last 15 games and now sit with a record of 26-13. The Cavs are now 25-15 and sitting in the four spot in the Eastern Conference Standings.
This is one of those games again where the Cavs play decently in the first half, actually had a lead 28-26 at the end of the first quarter, but then lost the lead late in the second quarter. They then played catch-up the rest of the game but could not make up the difference.
Darius Garland, the Cavs All-Star guard, did what he could with Mitchell being absent. However, he struggled from the three-point line going 1-of-6, but, he did score 21 points on the night. Other players came off the bench like forward Cedi Osman, who had a nice game with 15 points, and Lamar Stevens, who only played 14 minutes, but contributed six points and was outstanding defensively.
Let’s take a look at another stud on the night for the Cavs, and realistically, their standout.
Cavs stud: Caris LeVert
Caris LeVert has contributed both as a starter and a bench player this season, and he’s done well at both occasions. However, more recently he’s been coming off the bench which he has been reported as saying that he likes to come in with that second group. But, more recently the team has been struggling with injuries to players like Darius Garland and Dean Wade, and like last night Donovan Mitchell being out, so LeVert has tried to come to the rescue, and do it he can’t.
LeVert had a nice game, contributing 22 points and shooting the ball pretty well. He went 8-for-13 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the three-point line. This type of performance for LeVert has been more consistent of late which is a good sign for the Cavs looking onward.
Over the last 15 games he has scored in double digits 11 times, of which some of those games he scored 19 points or more, and he has started the last four games as we said before because of various injuries in the starting rotation. He’s reportedly alluded to how he likes to come off the bench but his presence over the last several games has been noted.
There have been rumors about the Cavaliers looking to try to find an additional player via trade because they seem to be lacking that wing scoring player. One of the better players has been injured a lot is Dean Wade and he should be returning to the lineup within the next few games after having an injury to his shoulder.
For LeVert, he’ll continue to be called on, and if he can continue at the pace that he is, the Cavaliers will be in good shape.
Cavs dud: Evan Mobley
Evan Mobley has certainly learned all about the sophomore slump. He has struggled at times immensely this season, especially when it comes to offense and his shots. He only scored 12 points last night and has really of late struggled. He’s averaging 14.2 per game on the season but in the last 10 games he’s played in, he’s only gone over that mark twice. The days of Mobley contributing 15-to-20 points on a nightly basis as he was doing at the beginning of the season more often have been few and far between right now.
The other frightening stat from last nights game against the Nuggets was that he went zero-for-six from the free throw line. He’s played basketball for a long time and as a former coach writing this article I could never emphasize enough of players understanding that they were leaving free points from the charity stripe by not making their free throws. Mobley needs to get back to having some more confidence on the offensive side of things, as his defense continues to be a strong suit and relied upon by the team.
It hasn’t helped either over the last few weeks that his teammate, Jarrett Allen, has also struggled at times while both are important to the Cavaliers defense moving forward. They both need to step up their game offensively.
The Cavs are currently one of the better defensive teams in the league despite the slightest loss, and they rank number two overall while giving up 109 points per game. They are just below the Memphis Grizzlies, but just above the Milwaukee Bucks as far as those defensive points. One statistic that stands out defensively where Cleveland struggles is in blocks per game, as an aside.
One would think that with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in the paint that they would be contributing more than 4.1 blocks a game; that ranks them 25th in the league in shot blocks. The Brooklyn Nets lead the league with a 6.9 blocks per game average.
All the Cavs are hanging their hats on their defense and players like Mobley in the paint have got to figure out how to get off to better starts in most games and get better contributions from Mobley and Allen on offense, because right now they’re relying too much on the guard play of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell.
As mentioned earlier, Dean Wade, and also Ricky Rubio should be returning very soon likely on this Western road trip, and that should help the team moving forward.