The Cleveland Cavaliers were not able to come away with a victory against Lakers team that didn’t have LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Friday night was prime opportunity for the Cleveland Cavaliers to take advantage of the Los Angeles Lakers who were without their two best players. The absences of LeBron James and Anthony Davis did not matter however as the Cavs still found themselves losing in L.A. 100-86.
The key culprit for the Cavaliers loss? It was the 3rd quarter yet again. Cleveland only managed to score 10 points in the quarter as they still somehow cannot figure out the cure for their 3rd quarter woes. If Cleveland was able to score at the average rate of the other three quarters the game would have been a heck of a lot closer.
Larry Nance Jr. was the best player on the floor for Cleveland Friday night. Nance led the Cavaliers in points (17). was second in rebounds (10) while finishing tied with Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland for the team lead with 5 assists.
Garland finished 6-17 from the floor including 1 of 6 from deep, not a great shooting performance overall. Garland’s 14 points were the second-highest total for the Cavaliers, itself being a decent scoring total. The issue being that not enough Cavs scored enough points to make this a point total that could work. This would have been the perfect game for Garland to break out and lead the team, but that was not in the cards.
Allen was the team leader in rebounds with 11 and finished third in points with 14. This was a typical performance from the young center and is what is expected from him night in and night out.
