Cavs emerging as one of the East's top teams despite injury woes
The Cavaliers have weathered injury issues to emerge as one of the East's best teams. Are they ready to pass a playoff test?
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Cleveland’s two leading scorers – Donovan Mitchell (27.4 in 49 games) and Darius Garland (18.7 in 45 games) – rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in games played out of Cleveland’s 69 so far this season.
Next Man Up: With injuries hampering two of their stars, the Cavs have held their top three position in the East thanks to a collective effort up and down the roster.
Everybody Involved: Over the past three months, the Cavs rank second in assist percentage, with 69.5% of their buckets coming off a pass.
How much have they shared the rock? Ten different Cavs have led them in scoring this season (and all but one have led the team at least twice).
No other team ranked in the top five in either conference has done that. Indy (13 players) is the only other team in playoff position to do so.
Cleveland’s Top Game Scorers This Season
- 32x: Donovan Mitchell
- 9x: Jarrett Allen & Darius Garland
- 5x: Caris LeVert
- 4x: Max Strus
- 3x: Sam Merrill
- 2x: Evan Mobley, Georges Niang & Dean Wade
- 1x: Craig Porter Jr.
In the span of a week, the Cavs had the Max Strus Game (Feb. 27 vs. Dallas) and the Dean Wade Game (Mar. 5 vs. Boston) as both players caught fire from 3-point range in the fourth quarter to lead the Cavs to improbable comeback wins.
While different players have led the offense throughout the season, a mainstay for the Cavs has been defense, which ranks fourth overall for the season (111.0), but has been even better over the past three months (109.3, 2nd in NBA).
Jarrett Allen’s presence has been felt on both ends. He’s already racked up a career-high 34 double-doubles and defensively holds opponents below their expected field goal percentage near the basket (-7.5% inside six feet) and all the way out to the 3-point line (-3.3%).
With Mitchell (nasal fracture), Strus (knee), Wade (knee) and Mobley (ankle) all ruled out for tonight’s game against Minnesota (8 ET, NBA TV), it will be another by committee approach for the Cavs in this clash of No. 3s.
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This article was pulled from our Starting 5 Newsletter, a daily look at all things NBA. To get the newsletter in your inbox every morning, subscribe here.
