With no Donovan Mitchell or Kevin Love, two of the most vocal leaders on the Cavs, the Wine and Gold hoped someone else would step up as their voice against the Kings Friday night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
However in the first quarter no one’s game was doing the talking as the Cavs only scored 20 points to trail Sacramento 31-20 after 1.
Darius Garland woke up in the 2nd as the Cavs were able to cut the Kings’ lead to 2 thanks to DG’s 11 points in the quarter including connecting on all 3 of his three’s. Cedi Osman was able to tie things up at 47 with a 3 in the final minute before halftime for 12 first half points.
The Wine and Gold were able to keep things tied up at 49 as they headed to the midway break.
In the 3rd, the Cavs went back and forth with Sacramento as Caris LeVert got in on the action with 12 points in the quarter and the Wine and Gold finishing on top 80-79.
The final minutes of the 4th however proved to be difficult for the Cavaliers as the Kings took a 6-point with 82 seconds left. It swelled to an 8-point lead as the Cavs were unable to find a basket in the final 4:50 as Coach JB Bickerstaff broke down what happened down the stretch.
“Nothing, that's it, didn’t execute, couldn't create anything for one another and then we had shots we turned down I thought they were open so we didn't do a good job of closing,” said Bickerstaff.
The players on the floor felt like their unselfish play actually led to the offensive stall late in the game.
“I think it was more so just trying to find a better shot as opposed to just taking what was there I think we did that a couple of times and it resulted in turnovers,” said Caris LeVert, who finished with a team-high 22 points.
Sacramento was able to put it on ice at the line at the scored 16 unanswered to get the 106-95 win in Cleveland. It was only the 2nd home loss of the season for the Cavs as they fell to 16-10 on the season, 11-2 at home.
If there was a silver-lining to the loss, it was the re-emergence of LeVert who has had an up and down season in and out of the starting lineup. However, with Donovan Mitchell out Friday, the Columbus native was able to step up.
“I thought he had his moments where he was aggressive, he made some great plays attacking the rim, did a great job of finding his teammates, I thought he was pretty solid all-around,” said Bickerstaff.
“You know the minutes were there tonight obviously with Donovan being out,” said LeVert. “I think we all know what I'm capable of doing when I get the opportunity too so for me it's just about contributing as much as I can, making the most of whatever minutes that I have available. Obviously tonight it was more but I got to do a better job of giving more when I'm playing less minutes and that's something I'm working with.”
Another positive from Friday night’s loss is the fact that the Oklahoma City Thunder come to town on Saturday for the Wine and Gold to get back in the win column.
“We got to learn how to play same basketball for 48 minutes and obviously there’s nights when we were doing that but tonight we couldn't do that so we got to be better tomorrow,” said Cedi Osman, who tallied 17 off the bench in the loss. “I think that's a good thing about the NBA now there's another game tomorrow so we're going to bounce back and be better.”