Cleveland Cavaliers endured yet another loss in January as they played Dallas Mavericks to a final score of 104-97, losing the game to mark a 7-8 win/loss ratio in the start of the new year.
The Cavaliers were without star center Kevin Love, who underwent an MRI scan for a lower back injury and it was down to the dynamic duo of the magic man LeBron James and sharpshooter point guard Kyrie Irving to deliver for the team.
Cavaliers, who had been struggling with niggling injuries to almost all their players in recent teams except LeBron James struggled to cope without Kevin Love to maintain a balance between their offense and defense.
Although LeBron James and Kyrie Irving posted impressive personal statistics to their credit with James posting 23 points and Irving 18, the Cavs eventually fell short and in the 4th quarter were down by 13 points until Channing Frye cut the deficit to 7 as he scored 11 of his 13 points in the 4th quarter.
Harrison Barnes led the way for Dallas Mavericks as he scored a game-high 24 points to make sure that Cleveland didn’t have an easy time.
Which now brings us to the fact that if teams like Dallas who have a record much worse record than Cleveland are beating them like this, do the Cavaliers REALLY need to find their magic and start getting back to being consistent winners again?
Although LeBron James and Kyrie Irving have been impressive for the team, it’s ultimately down to the rest of the squad as well to help the team during clutch games. Although a blowout loss to Golden State won’t matter a much in the long run but a consistent string of inconsistency in away games is something the Cavaliers need to assess quickly ans devise a solution for it.
Their defensive game has been an issue this season with Cavs committing a lot of turnovers in games which was also the case in this fixture as Kyrie Irving and LeBron had 6 and 5 turnovers respectively.
On a total, Cavs had 17 turnovers which resulted in a combined total of 25 points for Dallas Mavericks. DAMMMNNNN!
If the defensive issues are somehow managed in time, it’s still time for redemption for the Cavs who continue to dominate the Eastern Conference standing at number 1 spot with the best record and 2 games in hand.
Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson are still out and it is down to LeBron James again to inspire the team as he did in the last year’s NBA Finals in order to maintain a better record on the road.
Furthermore, Cavs may need to look into some roster re-shaping to have better suited substitutes who can chip in at clutch moments but that’s a little far fetched given their current squad, right now.
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