The Cavaliers lost to Dallas and had to go on the road to Atlanta to play a Hawks team that is starting to play its best basketball at the right time and were dispatched for their trouble 131-107.
Cedi Osman led Cleveland with 21 points, Darius Garland added 18 more, and recent arrival Moses Brown finished with a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Cleveland will play both days this weekend with a visit to the Big Apple for a Saturday afternoon tilt against the Knicks and a Sunday evening home game against visiting Philadelphia.
I have been able to watch recent Cavalier games but haven't always had time to write about them, so some of the swashbuckling sword points will cover thoughts on recent events with the team rather than only the loss in Atlanta.
Swashbucklings
1) The Cavaliers are limping towards the playoffs and while they have clinched a spot in the play-in portion, they would not make the top six at this time.
Cleveland is trailing Toronto by two and a half games for the sixth spot, which would allow them to avoid the play-in series but leads Brooklyn by two games to keep the seventh spot.
2) Seventh is important as well for the Cavaliers, who would host one game against the eighth seed (Currently Brooklyn), and the winner of that game moves into the playoffs as the seventh seed.
3) The loser will host the winner of the ninth vs tenth game for the final playoff berth, so even if the Cavaliers may feel like their hopes of sixth place are waning, it's important that Cleveland finish as high as possible.
4) Since last I wrote about the Cavaliers, the team lost Rookie of the Year candidate Evan Mobley to an ankle sprain and Mobley has missed the losses to Dallas and Atlanta and has been already announced as out for both the weekend games.
5) For those scoring at home- Cleveland is now without Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen from the starting lineup and Rajon Rondo as the point guard to spell Darius Garland, who is currently playing through back woes.
The Cavaliers are severely undermanned and their "big man" lineup is badly handicapped without two of their three frontcourt stars.
6) Cleveland signed second-year man Moses Brown to a two-way contract and Brown started both losses compiling a combined twenty-seven points and twenty-one rebounds.
Brown, a 7'2 center, shows a high motor and while I know it's a small sample size and Brown needs lots of work in training camp, I could see Brown developing into a productive player off the bench in the future.
7) Cedi Osman led the Cavaliers off the bench with twenty-one points, hitting three long balls and hitting seven of ten shots.
Osman played twenty-seven minutes after not getting off the bench in the Cavaliers two games before the loss to the Hawks.
J.B. Bickerstaff had noted that Osman's effort on the defensive end was being affected when his offensive game was going through struggles and wanted to send a message to Osman that his game is about more than only scoring points.
8) Darius Garland finished with eight assists and pushed past John Bagley for the Cavalier's record for assists in a calendar month with 171.
Bagley's record had held up since December of 1985 when Bagley dished out 169 assists for the month.
9) Garland didn't play the entire fourth quarter and I loved the move by J.B. Bickerstaff to use his young star in minutes that are meaningful, considering his back pain.
10) Since the last time I wrote about the Cavaliers, Cleveland lost another player to the injury bug as Dean Wade suffered a knee injury that ended his season prematurely.
Wade finished the season averaging five points and two rebounds a game and averaged nineteen minutes per game.
No comments:
Post a Comment