Cavaliers

Dribbles: Cavs trying to keep rise going as road gets tougher

December 11, 2023

Random dribbles ahead of the Cavaliers’ road game against the Orlando Magic on Monday.

1. It feels like a week since we’ve talked about the Cavs, maybe longer. But that’s what happens when you go a couple days without a game in the NBA.

2. All you need to know is the Cavs have been playing well at home (lately) and on the road (all season). The latest example came in Friday’s win at Miami.

3. They did it without Evan Mobley (knee) and Caris LeVert (ditto). I don’t know the extent of those injuries, but they are both out again tonight.

4. The absence of Mobley will be particularly painful, given that the Magic are a bigger team with the likes of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Banchero scored a career-high 42 against the Cavs last week in Cleveland, and that was with Mobley.

5. Along with all that, the Magic will be out for revenge. They had won nine straight before losing to Brooklyn, and then the Cavs. Since then, they’ve beaten Detroit, which everyone does these days.

6. Anyway, back to the Cavs (13-9). They’ve been pretty good since the middle of November, right up there with any team in the East during that stretch. There can be a lot of wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over any bad loss, but overall, things are about where they should be when they’re mostly healthy.

7. Here’s another thing to keep in mind: There will be at least one more “bad” loss. There will also be a few more surprising wins. How do I know this? Because it happens to all 30 teams, every year, over the course of 82 games.

8. The Cavs just need their starters together the majority of the time and they will be in the mix when it matters. I truly believe that. When healthy, they look better and more locked in than the team that lost to New York in the playoffs.

9. I wasn’t so sure the Cavs would win a single game during this brutal trip along the East Coast. But they already beat the Heat. It doesn’t seem fair that they have to visit Boston on the second night of a road back-to-back on Tuesday. Then they visit the Celtics again on Thursday. But guess what? This is life in the big leagues. So the fact the Cavs played determined basketball in Miami counts for a lot.

10. Entering Monday, Donovan Mitchell leads the Cavs in scoring at 27.6 points per game. He is also averaging 5.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists. Darius Garland is at 19.6 points and a team-high 6.1 assists.

11. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff wants the Cavs to be a defense-first team behind the likes of Mobley and Jarrett Allen. And they are indeed climbing back up the ranks in that department. Having Isaac Okoro back on the floor surely helps there, too. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cleveland make a very low-level deal for an additional shot-blocker before February. That’s not inside info. Just a guess.