Are The Cleveland Cavaliers Back On Track?
The Cleveland Cavaliers have won impressively in their last two games after struggling last weekend.
What a difference 72 hours makes.
In my last article, I wrote about how the Cleveland Cavaliers have been sluggish at the beginning of games–and how it has slowly caught up to them. While that still was the case against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, they looked like the Cavaliers of old as they were able to close out the game down the stretch and get their 20th victory of the season.
Kyrie Irving showed flashes of last season with 22 points and J.R. Smith was almost unconscious from three-point range, going 5-of-11 from there and ending up with 17 points.
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It was a close game throughout, but it was a far cry from the 29-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday. They shot 46.5 percent from the field, which was 10.1 percent better, and shot 41.5 percent from three-point range, which was 6 percent better.
It seems that the loss against the Trail Blazers was a wake-up call and they realized who they were, and how talented they can be in any given game.
They played even better on Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets.
From start to finish, they took control of the game and almost ran the Nuggets out of the Pepsi Center into the thin Colorado air. LeBron James was unstoppable on his 31st birthday and put in 34 points. He even made a three-pointer which is progress in his current long-range funk. He is shooting a career-low .248 from the three-point line.
However, Iman Shumpert was the one who stole the show. He had 16 points, which is a season high for him after coming back from his wrist injury.
He looked like the Shumpert of old, playing scrappy defense and hustling all over the court. He also shot the mid-range shot a lot better which was something he struggled with in his previous two games. Irving missed the game due to rest, but he has stated that he won’t miss anymore games whether they are back-to-back or not.
Obviously winning against teams that are a combined 24-41 isn’t impressive to most people, but compared to how the Cavaliers have played the whole month of December, it was a sight that was welcomed.
I also brought up how the Cavaliers should make a change or a potential trade in order to shake things up in my last article. Well, they did. They benched Timofey Mozgov on Monday against the Suns and started Tristan Thompson. Although he makes the lineup smaller and limits the offensive flow in some aspects, he is a rebounding threat and is more physical.
I would have preferred Anderson Varejao getting the start, but coach David Blatt is still trying to figure his rotations out.
Nobody has been tougher on Mozgov than I have, but until he gets his confidence back and into the mindset he had last season, it was the best move Blatt could have made. In the last four games, he has 10 points and 15 rebounds combined. That’s the equivalent to a bad game by Andre Drummond.
He could finally realize that he’s going to have to earn his starting spot back instead of it being handed to him as it was when he first got traded to the Cavaliers last season. Either way, they have won their last two games in impressive fashion and that little change could make all of the difference.
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Blatt also went deeper into his bench on Tuesday and it kept players fresh. Hopefully he realizes that and doesn’t revert back to going to just six or seven deep. The Cavaliers have a tough road ahead of them in January. Will this win against the Nuggets finally get them going just as the trade did last year? We will definitely see.