The Cavaliers started their five-game road trip with a dud.
The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t able to sustain their good play from the last several weeks. They dropped the first leg of their five-game Western Conference road trip in embarrassing fashion, falling to the Devin Booker-less Phoenix Suns 126-113.
The final score isn’t indicative of how lopsided the game was. The Suns led by as many as 33 in the fourth quarter before the Cavs made the final score more tolerable in garbage time.
Despite the ending, the game was back and forth throughout the first half, with Phoenix taking a five-point lead into the break. That changed quickly in the third quarter.
The Suns thoroughly dominated that frame, winning it 45-32. The Cavs had no answer on defense as the Suns went 16-20 (80%) from the floor in that quarter.
Tempers flared at the start of the fourth as the Cavaliers became increasingly frustrated with the officiating. Head coach Kenny Atkinson picked up his second technical foul of the evening just one minute into the final quarter. That at least saved him from witnessing the conclusion of a game that the Suns led by 33 at one point.
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Two things did the Cavaliers in on Friday: Three-point shooting and turnovers.
The Suns were able to exploit the Cavs’ poor perimeter defense. They couldn’t stop dribble penetration and had to collapse the defense to protect the rim. This led to easy drive-and-kick threes that the Suns knocked down at a 47.9% clip.
Meanwhile, the Cavs weren’t able to get the three-ball to fall as they went 15-48 (31.3%) from beyond the arc. This led to Phoenix having a 24-point advantage in points off of threes.
This was coupled with an inability to take care of the basketball. Without Darius Garland (toe), Evan Mobley (calf), and Craig Porter Jr. (knee), Atkinson’s group needed Donovan Mitchell to organize the offense. He failed to do so, turning it over eight times, one off his career-high of nine for a game.
Mitchell wasn’t the only one giving it away. As a team, the Cavs gave it away 22 times. Phoenix capitalized with 36 points off turnovers.
Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 27 points on 9-14 shooting, a day after dropping 40 in a win over the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons.
Brooks was the only Sun to finish with more than 20 points, but seven finished with double-digit points.
There’s little to take away from the Cavaliers’ perspective. This was a truly awful game with very few redeeming qualities.
Jarrett Allen looked good in the first half, but that fizzled away in the second half. Jaylon Tyson played well, providing 16 points on 7-13 shooting, but he wasn’t able to do enough to slow Phoenix’s momentum.
Mitchell had 16 points on 6-12 shooting with six assists and eight turnovers in the loss.
The Cavs will look to get things headed back in the right direction when they take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. Tip-off is at 9 PM.
Category: General Sports
