The last week before the New Year was kind of a wild one for the Cavs. They only had two games since they were excluded again from participating in the Christmas Festivities. The small break allowed JB Bickerstaff & company to get some practices in and enjoy family time during the holidays. The New Year should bring many good things for the Cavs, but before all that, let’s recap the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The Good
Impossible comeback win @ Mavericks: Full disclosure, I turned off this game at halftime. Luka Doncic was having his way getting into the paint against the Cavs defense and had 29 points at the break. After that, the Cavaliers defense took it personally. They only allowed 41 points to be scored in the 2nd half for the Mavs. Their defense set the tone for the comeback and with 5:45 left in the game the Mavericks had a 93.3% win probability. The game seemed to be out of reach. Then, Caris LeVert went to work scoring 10 points down the stretch and playing excellent defense in the last possession against Doncic. A great win no matter how you look at it.
The Bad
Donovan Mitchell Illness: The Cavs just can’t catch a break. Mitchell missed 4 games due to an illness that kept him in bed. It seems that the rest did him well because he came back on Friday against the Bucks and dropped 34 on them. It also appears that Spida did not spread any of the illness to the rest of the team. Which at this point wouldn’t surprise me if the Cavs had some other misfortunate event keep some squad players out.
The Ugly
Refereeing in the Bucks Game: If you thought that injuries were the adversity facing the Cavs this season, you’d be wrong. There was a stretch late in the 4th quarter where Jarrett Allen was going 1v1 with Giannis Antetokounmpo in the post. Giannis spun on Allen and appeared to hook his arm around Allen’s back. Allen’s knee made contact with Giannis’ leg and a foul was called on Allen. JB Bickerstaff challenged the call as Giannis had made similar moves with his arm hooking around Allen’s back previously in the game. But to no avail, the referees confirmed the foul on Allen, and that sent Bickerstaff into a rage. Another aspect that probably enraged JB was the free throw disparity. They Cavs only attempted 9 Free Throws while the Bucks attempted 28. And the game was in Cleveland. Well, lets hope there will be better refereeing for hte Cavs in 2024…
