The Cleveland Cavaliers have got another damper after their short intermediate high. Against the Denver Nuggets the Cavs present themselves aggressively strong, defensively they drown however in the tripartite rain.
The euphoria of the Cavaliers after their trades at the deadline has finally disappeared. After Cleveland presented himself as a completely different team at first, Cleveland now seems to be over with the glory: the fourth defeat from the last five games has already been won against the nuggets.
The defense was once again alarming, especially against the shooters of the nuggets. Again and again, closeouts were not run hard enough, so Denver had a lot of space at the perimeter – and there was also a lot of hot air (19/35 3FG). Especially Nikola Jokic (8 Assists) and Will Barton (7) always had the eye for the open shooter on the nuggets side, especially Gary Harris (32 points, 6/10 3FG).
Cleveland made offensively even an improved impression in comparison to the last few games. LeBron James already played another triple double (25 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists) and orchestrated his team masterfully, six more Cavs landed in Double Figures. Just now, J. R. On his return to “Soup-Gate” Smith played one of his best games of the season, with the Guard scoring all of his 19 points in the second half. Larry Nance also provided the big highlight of the game with a Dunk over Mason Plumlee.
However, style points are not synonymous with victories. Cleveland kept the game tight until late into the fourth quarter, after two free throws by James 2:40 minutes to go, the Cavs were on 1 point. The next 11 points of the game were then made by Denver – a three-way from Harris 52.9 seconds before the end was at the end of the coffin nail. The Cavs were simply not able to generate stops, and in the front the last attempts of Smith didn’t want to fall any more.
In the end, there was a frustrating home race for the Cavs. Denver, on the other hand, has now won four away games in a row – and improved his starting position in the brutal play-off race of the Western Conference once again. Besides Harris, this was mainly due to Barton (23 points), Jamal Murray and Wilson Chandler (both 16).