An undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers squad came rollin' into
Mempho'-TWA and the news got worse as Cleveland's leading scorer in Collin Sexton tried to play on an injured ankle, but Sexton couldn't make it through warmups to leave the Cavaliers even lighter on the available roster.
Considering the Cavaliers had lost three of four on their current road swing and hadn't looked great in either of their losses in Orlando, one would figure that the Memphis Grizzlies would have a sizable advantage even missing their young star in Ja Morant.
One would figure wrong as the Cavaliers hung in the game all evening long, made the plays when they needed to, and squeaked out a 94-90 win over the Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum.
Andre Drummond led Cleveland with 22 points and 15 rebounds with Larry Nance Jr. dropping in 18 more points in a night that saw Jr hit all seven shots that he took from the floor.
The Cavaliers travel to Milwaukee on Saturday night for a meeting against Bango the Buck before a rematch with these Memphis Grizzlies on Monday at Rocket Mortgage Field House.
Swashbucklings
1) This game wasn't the greatest piece of art in a basketball game ever, but the game was closely contested and hard-fought with the biggest lead being seven points held by Memphis for a few minutes in the third quarter.
2) Some of that may be that with both teams playing at far less than full strength, players that are receiving more minutes than usual are hustling around to impress coaches to grab more minutes.
It's easy to forget that every player is a competitor and in situations that Cleveland and Memphis are currently in, players like Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade are getting chances to impress that they normally would not have and trying to take advantage of that time.
3) He didn't lead on the scoring sheet, but Isaac Okoro made the two pivotal plays of the game with under a minute to play.
The first came as Memphis rolled down the floor for what would have been a layup to change the lead from Cleveland's by one to Memphis by one.
As the ball was laid up, a racing Okoro caught the play and blocked the layup.
Okoro was called for a foul, but replays showed no contact and after J.B. Bickerstaff used his coach's challenge, the play was overturned.
4) After a jump ball was won by Andre Drummond, the Cavaliers saw the clock winding down with Drummond fifteen feet from the basket.
Drummond saw Okoro cutting to the hoop and hit him with a pass for a layup that gave Cleveland a three-point lead.
Plays like these two are made hustle in the case of the former and innate basketball sense in the latter.
The Cavaliers have found themselves the type of player that may not develop into a superstar, but one that all championship teams need to have.
5) Larry Nance Jr. stepped up with his perfect shooting night at just the real-time with the Cavaliers playing with only nine players.
Nance may not be this type of offensive talent every night, but the effort that Nance gives every night is again the type of players that winning teams always seem to find.
6) I really like the colors and logo for the Grizzlies, but their jersey backs had the player name below the numbers and I don't remember that style being used other than by the Knicks in the early 80s, and for some reason, I seem to remember the Kings using it in Kansas City for a year or two.
I'm not really a fan.
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