Cavs News: Mobley Madness, Mitchell-less again, Wade returns

Make no mistake, the Cleveland Cavaliers needed to rebound on Saturday night versus the Milwaukee Bucks, following an inexcusable loss to the ultra-shorthanded Golden State Warriors on Friday night. Cleveland’s defensive issues in that one were difficult to process.

Fortunately, the Cavs looked to put that behind them quickly, and responded well on Saturday night on the second leg of their latest back-to-back.

The Cavaliers’ ball movement was impressive against the Bucks, leading to 33 assists, led by Darius Garland’s 10, and while there were three-point shooting woes, Cleveland did shoot 55.8 percent overall. In the contest, Evan Mobley had a career-high 38 points, making plays from great feeds from Garland, Caris LeVert and others, and Mobley had some nice self creation sequences. He was a game-high plus-20, also.

Mobley couldn’t have been more efficient in going about his business, either. He was moving masterfully to receive off-ball interior looks, utilized body control with his finishes, and on-ball made some outstanding moves to shoot over defenders. All in all, he had those 38 points on 19-of-27 shooting, and did so entirely in-rhythm, playing to his strengths and within game flow, as evidenced by this stat mentioned by Cavs Notes below.

From there, the likes of Garland (as a scorer), Jarrett Allen, and Cedi Osman (13 points on four-of-seven shooting) all came up with some key baskets in helping the Cavaliers operating at a high level on offense. And LeVert and Ricky Rubio had seven and five assists, respectively, as well.

The Bucks did hit some difficult looks from three, and connected on 14 of those looks in all, led by Bobby Portis with five of those, but the Cavs’ multiple effort plays helped spark their runs, and Isaac Okoro, LeVert, Rubio and Garland all had two steals.

Now, Milwaukee was without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton again, of course, so you have to take that grain of salt. However, it still was crucial that the Bucks only had 11 free throw attempts, and sans Donovan Mitchell, this was a quality 114-102 win to maybe give the Wine and Gold a needed boost.

More Cavs news

The Cavaliers were again without the services of Donovan Mitchell, which marked their third straight outing with that predicament. Mitchell has had absences before, as an aside, and of late, a groin injury has been the designation for him.

The Cavs have found ways to be competitive, for the most part, without Mitchell in the lineup, but at times, being without his scoring gravity has limited them. Mitchell has been an incredible trade acquisition in his first season with Cleveland, and seems to be in line to be an All-Star starter for the first time. Hopefully he’s back soon, and it would seem will be. On the year, Mitchell has had 28.4 points and 4.8 assists per contest, and has shot 39.5 percent from three.

In other news, after being out since Dec. 2 with an AC joint sprain in his shoulder and then suffering an ankle sprain recently, Dean Wade was back on Saturday for the Cavs. Wade didn’t register much in the box score, to the tune of one rebound in 10 minutes, but it was nice to see him back in for a bit.

In the early portion of the season, Wade had been one of the Cavaliers’ best two-way contributors, filling in at numerous times at the starting 3 spot. Wade has been a developmental success story for the Cavs over the course of his time with the team, and last offseason, was signed to a three-year extension for $18.5 million, with $16.5 million guaranteed.

On the season, he’s had 6.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per contest, and has shot 41.1 percent from three in his 23.3 minutes per appearance. The team has gone 13-5 in his appearances as well, and for the season, his plus-minus has been a healthy plus-4.3. It was good to see him back in action, especially from a perimeter defensive and rebounding standpoint, and with Wade’s catch-and-shoot expertise back in the fold.

NBA news

A couple of performances jumped out from Saturday night, from two of the league’s best young perimeter bucket-getters. Anthony Edwards had 44 points, and connected on eight triples, and threw down a handful of ferocious jams in a win over the Houston Rockets for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was making things happen in a multitude of ways, and most notably, had three steals and three blocks, so the full array was on display.

The other performer that was really in his bag was Tyrese Maxey, who was monstrous in the Philadelphia 76ers’ second half comeback over the Sacramento Kings on the road. Maxey had 32 points in that game, 15 points in the third quarter, and helped Philly have a 5-0 road trip; the Sixers were without both Joel Embiid and James Harden in that last one, too, in which they were down at one point by 21 points.

Both Edwards and Maxey have continually emerged as two of the game’s bright young stars, and their shot creation, transition and finishing abilities are so polished. They’ll be filling it up for a very long time.

Next Up: The Cavaliers will begin a three-game road trip on Tuesday night at the New York Knicks.