by The Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a third quarter 11-point deficit to rally for a huge home win they badly needed tonight by a score of 113-108 over Denver. There are many things that jumped out about tonight’s game, but here are the 5 biggest.
Cavaliers dominated the boards 55-32
Cleveland spent the bulk of the second half playing from behind and the one thing that kept them in it no matter how bad things got was their concertation on rebounding. At a time when they had to do anything possible to stay in the game, it was the outrebounding of Denver that allowed them to do that, including plenty of second chances late in the fourth to eventually seal the win. The two big’s of Jared Allen and Evan Mobley combined for 23 of those rebounds.
Lack of perimeter defense hurt the Cavaliers in the third first three quarters.
The Nuggets went 17 of 47 from behind the line and while that is only 37%, what hurt the Cavaliers was their lack of perimeter defense in the first three quarters where all 16 of those three balls were made. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Cavaliers shut it down, but those 16 in the first 36 minutes put them behind the 8 ball, they must be better.
A tale of two second halves
The Nuggets came out of the locker room and scorched the Cavaliers for 38 points in the third. This forced the Cavaliers to play from behind for almost the entire second half. A fourth quarter shutdown of the Nuggets held them to 11 points in the entire quarter. The Cavaliers need to figure out a way to start each half hot and not rely on crazy fourth quarter comebacks.
Bench scoring
Bench scoring was big for the Cavaliers tonight as they received 16 from DeAndre Hunter and 10 from Craig Porter Jr. These were 16 huge points that helped them in 3rd and 4th quarter respite for Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell.
Protect home court
When you look at the Cavaliers runs to the NBA Finals in 07,15,16,17 and 18 as well as their red hot start last year, one common factor was home dominance. They almost never lost at home and it helped them build sizable leads in the Eastern Conference. That win tonight improved their home record to 13-8 which isn’t good. That is only a 61% home winning percentage. To be taken seriously, you need to have your home winning percentage over 80%.
