French week! The Cavs pulled out both of their games this week against the San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets for the annual NBA Paris Game. The Wine & Gold held off the Spurs 117-115 on Sunday night before flying overnight to Paris, France. The boys would race out to a big lead in the French capital and hold onto a 111-102 win versus the Nets. The Cavs have three big Eastern Conference showdowns in week #13. But before that, lets break down the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of week #12.
The Good
Takin’ care of business: Jarrett Allen won the battle of the big-men vs. French Phenom Victor Wenbanyama on Sunday. JA led the team with 29 points and 16 rebounds and has been making a push to be included in the NBA All Star Game. Fast forward to Thursday, the Cavs get out to a great start with a half-time lead of 54-34. Donovan Mitchell met the moment in the ‘City of Lights’ by pouring in 45 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists. The Nets would come on late by scoring 42 points in the 4th quarter but the Cavs did enough to get the W in Paris. The Cavs are 4-1 this month, so let’s keep this going.
The Bad
Only two games! This might sounds silly, but the Cavs might have had too much rest this week. They are on a 4 game winning streak, and usually when you are winning, you want to keep play more games. At the same time, some time might be required to rest after playing a game overseas. Either way, the Cavs have a favorable January schedule, thus the additional rest this week might set them up for more success going forward.
The Ugly
Strus Injury / Twitter: Each week could probably have a blurb about the ugliness of fans on twitter. This week, Max Strus started the game in Paris, but came out only after 6 minutes of play due to knee soreness. Predictably, the fans on twitter, some who had prop bets on the game, came out to display their disgust. As someone that has lost bets because of player injury, this is very frustrating but its not the players fault.
