Game wrap up from the Fear The Sword crew:
The Lakers’ defense led by Anthony Davis kept the Cavaliers at bay
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Another one bites the dust
After the Cavaliers’ display against Phoenix, it would be fair for one to feel major angst with this upcoming back-to-back stretch in Los Angeles. However, despite the team looking engaged early and matching shot for shot with the
Lakers in the first quarter, the cracks began to reemerge throughout the second quarter as they found themselves down by as many as 14 points.
While the team appeared to find its groove early in the third that too was more of a tease of what this version of the Cavaliers is capable of. Unfortunately, though it feels like nothing can truly stick with this team as for every great stretch on both ends this team can muster, it only gets compounded by equal stretches of lifeless offense and defensive lapses by the dozens.
There were strong showings by players offensively such as Darius Garland with one of his better shooting games we have seen lately. Garland posted 26 points on 11-25 shooting. It was a refreshing game to see Darius become more aggressive around the rim, we were seeing Garland getting to the spot and finding ways to get decent looks without having to accept his slighter frame against bigger defenders such as Anthony Davis.
The Lakers Understood the urgency needed to win, while the Cavaliers did not.
The Lakers imposed their will against Cleveland and it felt like the Cavaliers fell into a going through the motions mindset. There were two stretches in this game where the Lakers were able to generate big runs simply off of attentive defense and Cleveland becoming careless with the ball.
These instances emerged early in the second where the Lakers went on a 18-4 run, then again in the third to leave the Cavaliers in the rearview mirror on a 16-3 run. These are backbreaking sequences and while the Cavaliers were able to recover from the initial run in the second quarter even finding the lead early in the third, it too felt like the wind was out of the Cavaliers’ sails.
This is a problem that has plagued the Cavaliers since the All-Star break, and it appears that this game was representative of where each team is currently in their season. The Lakers have appeared to have found something currently on a 9-1 stretch in their past 10 games. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are either fully locked into games, or find themselves flaming out of games finding themselves 3-7 in their last ten.
As the team looks to another viable threat in the Clippers tomorrow, this team truly now leaves you not knowing which version is going to show up.
The Big Picture
The Cavaliers along with the majority of the Eastern Conference playoff contenders (not including Boston) are all finding their end-of-season stretches to be turbulent to put it nicely. The Cavaliers up and down play lately has made big questions of what to expect when it comes to postseason aspirations, while it would be nice to say we are seeing ways to play in the postseason, that is simply not the case.
The Cavaliers are currently still the third seed in the East, but with how erratic the competition for home-court advantage is as well, it is almost impossible to find a pulse as to where the chips will fall. With another tough game tomorrow and three more winnable games to end the season, home-court advantage is still clearly in view. But it depends on which team shows up.