The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Golden State Warriors 99-94. This one stunk.
Let’s see who won and lost the night.
LOSER – De’Andre Hunter
This last week couldn’t have been any more different from the way Hunter had previously been playing this season. His offensive creation, both as a finisher and playmaker, has completely vanished. His defense has been even worse, and his rebounding has been nonexistent.
Certain things you can excuse. Every player goes through slumps in shooting the ball. But a 2-9 shooting performance
wasn’t the issue tonight. It was the seeming lack of effort. The mental errors on defense, combined with being beaten off the dribble at every opportunity.
Hunter was guilty of most of these bad habits when he was in Atlanta. But he has proven that he can be more than this in Cleveland, even in a small sample size. We can judge him harshly because we know he can be better.
WINNER – Nae’Qwan Tomlin
Tomlin’s impact this season has been more intangible than anything that necessarily shows itself in the box score. It’s energy, hustle and enthusiasm more often than not.
Tonight, all that excitement finally materialized into a huge rebounding game.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the Cavs gave Tomlin plenty of opportunities to grab rebounds with their poor shooting. Tomlin himself rebounded a handful of his own misses. But it doesn’t matter how you get them — it just matters that you get them.
Tomlin finished with 12 rebounds in 16 minutes. Not bad for a guy who isn’t even on a standard contract (yet).
WINNER – Darius Garland’s Mobility
This is something to keep an eye on all season. How is Darius Garland moving? Does he look limited by the toe injury? That’s more important than the outcome of any individual game.
I thought Garland moved well in this one. He was shifty, using his handle and quick bursts to get into the teeth of Golden State’s defense. That didn’t result in an efficient scoring night — but it was encouraging enough from a mobility standpoint.
Again, Garland wasn’t particularly good tonight.
He shot 6-15 and only had 4 assists to 3 turnovers. But he also hasn’t moved this fluidly for most of the season. Let us have some hope that maybe DG can fully turn the corner on this injury.
LOSER – The Offense
For the second time in their esteemed history, the Cavs and Warriors dared to ask the bold question: What if no one scored? In an homage to Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, neither team was able to buy a bucket for long stretches of this game.
The score at the end of the first quarter was 18-12. Yes, you read that right. The Cavaliers shot 0-10 from downtown while the Warriors were 4-23 from the field (17%) in the opening 12 minutes. Golden State actually had more turnovers (5) than made field goals in the first quarter. This type of basketball can be boring to watch. At the same time, it reached a level of absurdity that was almost entertaining.
It might have been more entertaining if it had ended in a win.
Cleveland continued their cold streak through the entire game. For a team that just scored 44 points in a quarter the night before, Cleveland couldn’t muster up more than 30 points in a quarter until the fourth, when they scored 32.
You just won’t win many games if you shoot this poorly. Cleveland’s 34.6% field goal percentage was the lowest they’ve had in a regular season game since March 2021.
