On Friday night, the Donovan Mitchell-less Cleveland Cavaliers played their first of five straight road games. Starting the road trip, the Cavs’ took a 121-108 loss with Mitchell out due to rest. This Cleveland unit has had the best defensive rating in the league until what took place in Denver Friday night. As of late, this team is lacking when it comes guarding the three ball.
This Cavs team over their last 5 games have allowed their opponents to shoot 42.6 percent from three-point range, ranked second-worst in the NBA over that span. And if we want to be precise, from 20-to-24 feet out the Cavs are letting teams connect (43.3) percent of the time which ranks in the bottom eight, while from 25-to-29 feet out the team has the third-worst allowed percentage (43.5%) from that range. This all comes from within their last 5 which includes Friday’s defeat in the Mile High City.
J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad will stay out West during these next four games as they fight for ways to come out victorious. Cleveland is a mere 7-of-11 on the road this season with the fifth-fewest points per game (108.5) away from home. Recently-crowned Mr. 71 will be back to get this team rolling again but to be fair, there’s more work to be done. If the Cavaliers expect to compete for a top spot in the Eastern Conference, they’re going to have to win games on longer road stretches.
Depending on one “Spida” to build the whole web, in this case, just isn’t going to work. Scoring off the bench, being a defensive pest, young talented players with all the intangibles you can dream of are all puzzle pieces that the Cavs’ have in hidden drawers around The Land. Can the team from Cleveland fit those pieces in order to translate to wins on the road?
Here are three Cavs players who are trending upwards and can contribute in these next four road matchups.
We’ll begin with Raul Neto.