Cavaliers keep things close late, lose to Raptors
The Cleveland Cavaliers nearly came away with an upset victory, but were unable to finish their comeback attempt against the Toronto Raptors.
The Cleveland Cavaliers found themselves down one point with just 1:18 left to go in the game. Cleveland actually had a chance to upset the reigning champs. Unfortunately their rally from down 14 earlier in the quarter came up short as Toronto outscored Cleveland 10-3 to close out the game. The Cavaliers found themselves on the wrong end of a 115-109 final score.
Turnovers were the story yet again for the Cavs. Cleveland had 23 turnovers in the game compared to Toronto’s 14. It is hard to win any game with that amount of turnovers, much less a game against a team as good as Toronto.
Collin Sexton and Kevin Love led Cleveland’s scoring effort
Kevin Love and Collin Sexton both had 23 points on the night. Kevin Love went 8-13 from the field, 6 of his 9 makes were three-pointers. The 12-year veteran is averaging three made three-pointers per game in the month of January. Love also had 5 rebounds, four assists, and one steal.
Collin Sexton finished going 9-17 from the field and 1-5 from deep. Sexton also made all four free throw attempts. Sexton’s recent trend of increase in assist numbers continued as he had 4 assists. The second-year guard is averaging 4 assists per game over his past five games. Sexton also had 4 rebounds, 1 steal, and one block.
Darius Garland with a bounce back performance
Darius Garland had a rough stretch coming into this game, combining to go 16-59 from the field (27.1%) over the previous four games. Garland’s assist number also took a bit of a tumble, down to 2.8 from his average of 6 per game prior January 20th. The Cavaliers rookie was in need of a good game, he had one. Garland had 16 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1 steal. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come because his previous performances were rough, possibly leading to his absence from the loss to New Orleans on Tuesday. Garland was kept out of the game due to rest and it seems like he really needed it.
Larry Nance Jr. has another excellent game off the bench
Larry Nance Jr. had another good game off the bench, scoring 13 points on 5-10 shooting (1-2 3PT) in 26 minutes. Nance also grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked one shot. Nance was one of two Cavs bench players to play more than 20 minutes in the game, there other being Kevin Porter Jr.
The 27-year old Cavaliers power forward has been quite productive since returning from injury. In his last eight games, Larry Nance Jr. is averaging 13.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1 steal per game. Nance is shooting 61% from the field and 42.1% from deep over this stretch and has been one of the better bench players for the Cavaliers as of late.
Kevin Porter Jr. has an up and down performance
Kevin Porter Jr. scored 13 points in 29 minutes off the bench. Porter made 5 of 9 attempts, including going 2-4 from three-point range. Porter also had 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal in the contest.
Not everything was great for Kevin Porter Jr. Porter committed 7 turnovers in the game. Two of his turnovers came within 16 seconds of each other with the Cavaliers still fighting to comeback in the game. Kevin Porter Jr.’s turnover are not the reason why Cleveland lost, but they certainly did not help as they came at a crucial time.
