Recap: Cavs 119, 76ers 125 (or, Back on the Grind)
2022-03-05The Cavs went into Philadelphia putting forth a valiant effort, falling just short against the 76ers 119-125. The Cavs won the rebounding and assist battle, so it wasn’t for a lack of effort or unselfishness. They simply didn’t have the horses to compete with the three headed monster of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and James Harden. Let’s dive right into tonight’s takeaways!
1. Darius Garland turns in an MVP performance
Darius Garland dimed out a career-high 19 assists while also leading the @cavs in scoring with 26 points!@dariusgarland22: 26 PTS, 4 REB, 19 AST, 2 STL 4 3PM pic.twitter.com/1rKgsjSzed
— NBA (@NBA) March 5, 2022
DG did everything he could to will this Cavs’ team to victory, short of playing all 48 minutes. 26 points, a career high 19 assists, four rebounds, two steals, a block, and a +3 plus/minus. What more could he have done? One nitpick is only scoring two points in the fourth quarter, but surely the minutes load took its toll. Perhaps the two lessons to be taken from this game is how much conditioning matters, and focusing on fourth quarter scoring. But seeing the young All-Star PG perform at a high level in a big game is a sight for sore eyes during this stretch of losses.
2. Ice’s building block
Isaac “Ice” Okoro had a “breakout” offensive performance with hyper-efficient 22 points, and chipping in three rebounds, three assists, and a +7.5 net rating, ranked second best among Cavs for the night. His offense hasn’t looked this good since his breakout performance last season, especially getting to the rim and finishing or drawing the foul. If he can learn to stay in attack mode and attack the rim, it will open up a whole new dimension of the offense as it did tonight.
Isaac Okoro has 13 points in just the first-quarter!
The @cavs are live on NBA League Pass: https://t.co/oz9UCQxdQa pic.twitter.com/s8BDMyK8Kg
— NBA (@NBA) March 5, 2022
3. Evan Mobley’s struggles continue
Evan Mobley was clearly the odd man out of the starting group, with a horrific -15.7 net rating in 32.5 minutes and only seven points and four boards in that span. There is perhaps no Cav on the roster that misses Ricky Rubio more than Evan Mobley. His shooting splits post-Rubio injury are stunningly bad, especially from three. The rookie is lost, and the coaching staff needs to help the kid out.
4. Sixers’ bench > Cavs’ bench
The Cavs’ bench was completely outclassed by the Sixers’ bench tonight. Kevin Love posted the best net rating among the bench unit, -16.3 in 26.3 minutes. That’s what happens when the Cavs have to play against James Harden or Joel Embiid-ran Sixers’ bench units. Given how bad the Cavs’ bench was collectively, where the hell was Dean Wade? All is not lost though on the bench front, KLove did still turn in a double double and Cedi Osman dropped an efficient 20 points. The Sixers were simply operating on another level in bench lineups.
5. J.B. falls victim to foul trouble self-sabotage
Besides the disappearing act of Dean Wade, Coach J.B. Bickerstaff may have cost the Cavs a chance at victory by icing out the most effective Cav of the night, Lauri Markkanen, due to foul trouble. Markkanen ended up only playing 17 minutes, even though he led the team by far with a +20.0 net rating. Every minute Markkanen rode the bench was a minute J.B. effectively “fouled out” his own player. In a close game, they may wonder what could’ve been.
6. Quick note on the 76ers
Yes, the Sixers are absolutely contenders. As J.B. Bickerstaff noted, their offense is ridiculously efficient. But watching two of biggest free throw grifters in James Harden and Joel Embiid is something for which Commissioner Adam Silver ought to be held accountable, because it STINKS! Yours truly is old enough to remember the “let them play” edict at the beginning of the season that has seemingly vanished into the aether. Anyway, can’t wait to see the Golden Turd choke again in the playoffs.
7. Next up, Prime Time at the Rock
The hits keep coming as the Cavs make their way back home to the shores of Lake Erie for another massive Eastern Conference showdown in primetime TV against the Toronto Raptors, who happen to be directly behind the Cavs for the sixth seed. The Raptors will be coming to town also desperate for a win, having lost six out of their last 10 games. It should be an intense battle that makes for must watch TV, Go Cavs!
Another superior cap.
live thread up
I think the Warriors are done unless Bray can come back 100%. Losing to this trash Laker team is pretty embarrassing.
LOVE IT LEBRON 50 BURGER COOKED EM GOOD!!!
Lol. Lebron has literally half the Laker points and they’ll still likely lose…
I’m willing to die on the Andrew Wiggins is an average player at very best island…
I think there’s a lot of people on that island, like Manhattan
Maybe. He was a K-Pop All Star, though. I would take Kuminga over over him, though, amongst many, many others…
I think Lauri is the secret ingredient to this team, when he’s in the game the mere presence of 3 seven footers is daunting. He’s a much better defender than I would have ever thought and the guy just seems clutch. I knew he was in foul trouble, I didn’t realize he only played 17 minutes, that’s a huge hole.
yup, Lauri’s just a really nice glue guy, gives you a little bit of everything… especially on offense where his impact is felt the most.
Amusingly, Woj said that if Kidd had still been on the staff, Vogel would have been fired already. One of the offseason moves I’m really looking forward to is the next Laker coach hire. If it’s not Rambis I will be shattered. Or perhaps Rambis is a better fit as GM. On the other hand, why not hire Linda Rambis as GM, and Kurt as HC? So many intriguing possibilities…
Hahaha
Mobley is struggling because he’s a rookie and is hitting the ‘rookie wall’….the coaching staff needs to work with him on confidence and getting easy looks…they are not doing that…this latest stretch shows the players and coaching staff need to reassess their identity and get back to it…we are seeing shades of 2020 play where team blows a game or is never really in it by the 3rd quarter…coaching staff got big heads got extended 20 games in and now shits getting real and staff isn’t handling well or supporting players well either.
yup, rookie wall plus the loss of Rubio could easily foresee this drop in Mobley’s production.
right. a lot of CtB’ers predicted this
Looking forward to the Cavs holding someone under 120 again.
At least they had a monster first quarter and Garland, Allen, Okoro, and Cedi played some good ball.
Beating the 76ers at home in a meaningful game is a tall order. They’re a good team with some great (if annoying) players.
Several sequences in the 4th with Garland getting matched up on Embiid where certainly perplexing. What the heck? I mean once maybe but that can’t be the plan.
JB talked about the defense late, said Philly adjusted to the zone.
DG was amazing, one of his best games of the season. As you note, Okoro needs to play like that all the time. I like him a lot, and I think it’s impossible to know what his ceiling is yet, but he simply cannot be an even more invisible offensive Roberson playing this many minutes for this Cavs team. Attack the hoop, Ice. Harden had absolute minimum two clear offensive fouls in the second half that were called on the defender, merely because of the patented head jerk. If current NBA refs cannot referee this conman properly by this point,… Read more »
Wouldn’t even be bothered by Ice’s lack of offense if there was Thybulle level defensive playmaking, but there’s not even that with Ice so far.