Cleveland Cavaliers Suffer Another Tough Loss

The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered their second loss to the Golden State Warriors in their worst game of the season.

This was not how it was supposed to go on Monday night in Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena.

It was supposed to be a game in which the Cleveland Cavaliers got redemption against the Golden State Warriors after losing to them on Christmas Day. Well, the complete opposite happened as the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 132-98. That 34-point loss is the worst they have suffered this season after losing to the Portland Trail Blazers by 29 on December 26th.

They were down by 43 points at one point in the game.

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The Cavaliers were overmatched from start to finish. Stephen Curry came out making half-court three-point shots and the rest of the team followed after that.

The Warriors shot an amazing 54.1 percent for the game along with 47.5 percent from three-point range compared to the Cavaliers 48.1 percent and 36.8 percent, respectively. Most of the shots were easy for the Warriors due to the Cavaliers playing little to no defense for most of the game. They looked very sluggish and disinterested and it showed in their overall performance.

However, the biggest disappointments of the game were two guys that I’ve mentioned frequently–Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov. This was the second start for Mozgov after being benched for Tristan Thompson a few weeks back. He started out hot, going 3-for-3, and looked like he might finally be back to his old self, but that only lasted one quarter.

He then reverted back to “bad” Mozgov, where he failed to catch the ball in the low post and was slow and confused on the defensive end, especially against the pick and rolls by the Warriors. He only finished with six points and three rebounds, butIt’s at least it’s six more points than he had on Christmas.

Now to Love. It has been a tough stretch of games for him since the beginning of the “Texas Triangle.” He’s looked out of place and has struggled making shots. But even worse, his defense has been non-existent.  This play during the third quarter not only epitomizes how the game went, but also how Love’s defense has been all season long.

A simple play on which he should of just stayed within the post, and let the help pick up Draymond Green; he failed by being overaggressive. Love finished with only three points and six rebounds. It wasn’t nearly as good as his 10-point, 18-rebound night on Christmas.

It could be because Mozgov is back in the lineup–or due to the matchups–but as one of the key players on the team, he cannot afford to have low productive nights.

It also was a bad night for Kyrie Irving. He went 3-for-11 for the game and only 1-for-3 from three-point range. He had no answer for Curry and sat most of the second half in place of Matthew Dellavedova. It seemed that only LeBron James, J.R. Smith (who got ejected for a questionable flagrant 2, Iman Shumpert and Dellavedova realized that there was a game happening.

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Everybody else seemed to be sleepwalking.

I don’t know if they were struggling due to tired legs or maybe they were in the classic “chill mode,” but the Warriors came in and made an even bigger statement to the entire Eastern Conference. It’s completely understandable that it’s only one game in January.

But when you are a team that is contending for a championship and going up against the team that eliminated you from the NBA Finals–most teams would be up and ready.

On Sunday, according to Nina Mandell of USA Today, Curry made a comment saying that he hoped the Cavaliers visiting locker room “still smelled like champagne” after winning the title last year. James was asked about the comment, but said he would wait until the game to show how he felt about it. Well after Monday’s performance, I guess he set the table and glasses out for the Warriors as they arrived.

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Monday’s game proved that the Cavaliers have a long way to go before they can even be mentioned in the same sentence as the Warriors. If they don’t address the obvious issues and put an end to the slow starts, it could be too late.