CLEVELAND — Random dribbles ahead of the Cavaliers’ home game against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday. …
1. This is an NBA Cup game, but it means nothing. Neither team has advanced to the quarterfinals and neither will play another Cup game this season.
2. That’s OK, the Cavaliers (18-3) have bigger fish to fry. The only way it truly impacts them is the league will now have to arrange for them to play a couple games that aren’t currently on the schedule — just so Cleveland can get to 82.
3. What’s more pressing is the Cavs want to keep a good thing going. Washington (2-16) should provide them with every opportunity to do so.
4. And the Wizards will have to do it without Kyle Kuzma, the team’s second-leading scorer behind Jordan Poole. Kuzma is out with a rib injury.
5. Meanwhile, Dean Wade (ankle) has been upgraded to questionable after missing the past six games. He took part in shootaround on Tuesday morning.
6. On the downside, Ty Jerome is questionable with an illness. If he’s not feeling up to it, the Cavs will probably sit him. After all, these are the Wizards.
7. That said, the Wizards have two wins — one on the road, one at home — and they both came in October in a back-to-back set over the Atlanta Hawks. Yes, the Cavs are 0-2 against the Hawks.
8. As one reader jokingly said to me, “Maybe the Wizards can teach the Cavs how to beat the Hawks.”
9. All in good fun, of course. But it is interesting how the NBA works. Sometimes, a team just has your number … during the regular season, anyway. (As an aside, Atlanta has now won four in a row and has evened its record at 11-11.)
10. The Cavs ideally will win this in blowout fashion so that the likes of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen can play fewer minutes. Again, though, this is the NBA, and you have to show up every night. It would only be human nature for the Cavs not to be “up” for this one.
11. As I’ve written, Cleveland native Michael Winger is Washington’s head of basketball operations and former Cavaliers front-office man. He seems to be building the Wizards in the image of the Cavs/Koby Altman. Difference is, the Cavs under Altman were never this bad, even in their darkest days.
12. After this, the Cavs get Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets at home on Thursday, followed by a road back-to-back over the weekend (at Charlotte on Saturday, at Miami on Sunday).
13. The Cavs can become the first team to 20 wins by the weekend. That would be quite the accomplishment in an early season full of them.
14. For more of the general state of things, check out my Cavs thoughts on Hoops Wire Live. You can watch at the YouTube link here. I’ve also posted the entire episode directly below.
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Cavs have the best record, not the best team. Regular season is different from the playoffs. I am glad the Cavs lost two in a row to the Hawks and struggled against Boston twice. It kind of points out where the team needs to improve to make a run at it all. A fast pace seems to give the Cavs trouble. Especially one who throws up alot of 3’s. Merrill is shooting too fast! I think he needs to fake that shot once in awhile and take it to the basket or get off a midshot and Become less 1 dimensional. I think we need to take more advantage of our bigs and run the offense through them. I bet we get more open 3’s too. This team is good. Is it good enough as is to win it all? I don’t think so. We need another starter 6’9 who is more consistent than what we are getting from Okoro, Wade, Niang, and Lavert. With our depth, how about pressing teams and wearing them out? Just a FAN thinking out loud.