Cavaliers edge Hawks 99-96
The Cleveland Cavaliers managed to come away with a three-point victory on the road against the Atlanta Hawks.
After a blowout loss the night before, the Cleveland Cavaliers needed to bounce back (even if it is only preseason). The Cavs took on the Atlanta Hawks B-Team and managed to come away with a slight three-point victory. Notable inactive for the Hawks include Trae Young, Lou Williams, Clint Capela, Danilo Galinari, and Bogdan Bogdanovic while the Cavaliers had their full compliment of players available to them.
The preseason is less about the final result and more about individual performances, especially since the Cavs did not face the best players in Atlanta. Looking at how everything sorted out at the end of the game it was a typical performance for most of Cleveland’s players.
Cleveland made 34 of 77 field goal attempts in the contest, including another lackluster shooting night from deep as they went 9-30. For the second straight game the Cavs turned the ball over 22 times, an alarming trend even if it is preseason. Last year the Cavaliers were a turnover prone team and it appears that trait has carried over into 2021-22.
Game notes
Collin Sexton led the scoring effort with 19, needing 17 shots to make seven. Sexton was dreadful from deep, making just two of eight three-point attempts while also missing half of his six free throw attempts. Something to keep an eye on is that through two preseason games Sexton has 12 turnovers to just three assists.
Speaking of assists, Darius Garland finished with a game-high seven while scoring 15 points of his own. Garland was 3-6 from the beyond the arc and made both free throw attempts in the contest. While Garland did turn the ball over four times, it was not more than his assist total.
Dynamic rookie Evan Mobley finished with 12 rebounds, a game-high. Scoring did not come easy, making just four of 11 field goal attempts. Luckily this is still preseason and Mobley needs to feel himself out against other NBA players at this time. Mobley did finish with the highest plus/minus of all Cavaliers starters with +11.
Ricky Rubio led the bench with six assists in 23 minutes while also scoring eight. Rubio appears to have slipped in nicely as the backup point guard on this roster to help the bench unit at least appear to be more of a cohesive unit.
