STOCK REDUCTION
Can I say everything? The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t have much luck. At least, not with the game they played.
They fell behind early and never dared to make it a contest. Miami threw them numerous coverages all night, with the Cavaliers drawing a blank on each one.
Miami started to open things up behind a full-court press that disrupted everything for the Cavaliers. Breaking the press wasted valuable time on the shot clock — and for a Cavs team that already struggles with time management in its half-court offense, it was a death sentence.
The Cavs offensive process was putrid. Midway through the third quarter, their total turnovers (14) almost matched the number of field goals (17) they had converted.
To make matters worse, things weren’t getting much better on the defensive end. Miami felt little resistance for most of the game. Open triples were raining down and the Cavaliers could do nothing to stay out of the blast radius.
Darius Garland continued to struggle through a muddy season. He only scored 9 points and delivered 3 assists before being unceremoniously sent to the bench as the deficit swelled to more than 30 points.
The only positive point could have been the return of Evan Mobley. He shined in small moments, like a spinning dunk and a three-pointer to open the game. Unfortunately, everything went downhill from there.
This Cavaliers team is sorely missing Donovan Mitchell. Nothing we’ve seen suggests they can survive a playoff series without him. All we can hope is that Mitchell is healthy soon — or we’ll see more nights like tonight.
