The Week Before Christmas in Cleveland 

The Week Before Christmas in Cleveland 

Time Stamp: December 24, 2023 6:01 AM

With the NBA’s favorite holiday coming up, basketball is on the fans’ minds. There’s no buildup to a Christmas Day game in Cleveland, so instead here’s a look at how the week before Christmas in Cleveland is going. 

Houston Rockets 

Cleveland started their week with the Houston Rockets on Monday night. Although Darius Garland and Evan Mobley are out with injury, the Cavs still left with their eleventh consecutive overtime win. The final score was 130-135. 

Mitchell finished with a hefty 37 points, six assists and two blocks. Behind him in scoring was an unexpected Sam Merrill with a (then) career high of 19 points. Not only that, Merrill also managed to finish with four rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal giving him that highest plus/minus on the team at plus 13. Strus was another of the bigger contributors dropping 17 points, three rebounds and two assists. 

Cleveland did turn the ball over a total of 12 times. An improvement on their recent performances, but not ideal. The Rockets scored 15 of their 130 points off these turnovers, meaning the Cavs could have avoided overtime if they had kept better control of the ball. 

Utah Jazz

The week continued with a Wednesday night matchup against the Utah Jazz. Able to avoid overtime this time, Cleveland wins this outing 116-124. Mitchell, along with Mobley and Garland, missed this game due to injury. 

Merrill, again, came ready to play. He finished with a team and career high 27 points, hitting eight threes along the way. Caris LeVert was also effective, contributing 23 points, three rebounds and seven assists. Allen finished with an underwhelming 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists. While the scoring from him is nice, more rebounds would be expected with Mobley out. Strus finished with 18 points and four rebounds and assists a piece, but also committed five turnovers. 

Although Cleveland won, the starting lineup was not as effective as they need to be if they want to continue winning while the stars are out. When looking at the combined plus/minus of the starting lineup (minus 11) compared to that of the bench (plus 55) the disparity is staggering. Granted this isn’t exactly the most effective way to compare the two units, it does highlight the differences in their effectiveness. While every member of the bench had a positive plus/minus, the only starting Cav to finish in the green was Okorro at plus three. The team finished with 12 turnovers again, but this time giving up 17 points off of them. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win. 

New Orleans Pelicans 

For the first time this week the Cavs ate a loss, finishing 123-104. Garland, Mitchell, and Mobley are all still out due to injury. 

Dean Wade finished with a team high 20 points and nine rebounds. Allen finished again with an underwhelming performance, this time being 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Okoro finished with 16 points, three rebounds and four assists. Craig Porter Jr, though quiet in his production this week, did dish a crisp 11 assists. 

For the third consecutive game, the Cavaliers finished with 12 turnovers, but this game gave up slightly more points off of them in 19. Although they’re not giving up more turnovers, they do continue to give up more points off of them. 

It’s going to be at least a couple weeks until Garland, Mitchell, and Mobley will all suit up again for Cleveland. If the Cavs want to avoid falling in the East in their absence, they’re going to need more players to step up. 

They next play Saturday night (December 23) in Chicago against the Bulls at 8:00 PM. 

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Featured photo courtesy of NBA.com
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