Cavs Top 3: Efficient shooting stalls Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers

The Cavs defeated Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers on Wednesday.

The Cavs are now 5-4 on the year, going 4-2 in their last six and knocking off the Hornets, Nuggets, Clippers, and now Trail Blazers. Expectations should be tempered, mostly due to the Cavaliers starting out similarly last year, but this is a much better scoring team. Despite Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers not being very good at the moment, you can’t sleep on them and a win over them at home is a heck of a thing.

Ricky Rubio had a good game passing and playing defense, his continued involvement on the team is part of the reason the team is constantly a threat. He didn’t crack today’s Top 3, but his continual impact on the team goes beyond just scoring.

The team eeked out a three-point win over the Blazers without Lauri Markkanen and Kevin Love, both of whom are at home due to health and safety protocols. Dylan Windler and Dean Wade stepped up, with Wade having a nice game defensively.

The Cavs shot efficiently against the Blazers

As always, the bottom is in descending order with the lowest number being the worst and the top is in ascending order with three being the best.

The Bottom Three Performers

1. Evan Mobley
2. Collin Sexton
3. Ricky Rubio

The Trail Blazers aren’t really a great team right now but they did do one thing right; attack the rookie. Evan Mobley isn’t going to be the top guy on these lists often but it will still happen; he’s human. Mobley had a solid outing offensively but if people are serious about him possibly being a Defensive Player of the Year candidate he can’t have a box+/- of -11 against teams like the Trail Blazers.

Collin Sexton had a great game offensively. He also was one of the reasons the Trail Blazers nearly came back in the first place. It doesn’t matter if you score 20+ points if you surrender nearly as much. That’s the whole point of the +/-, to find out what player is actually contributing on both ends of the court. He and Mobley had the same -11 on the night, not good.

He did a lot of things great but Ricky Rubio can’t go 0-7 and not get called on it. If Sexton is held for his lack of defense, Rubio will be held responsible for his lack of scoring. Both Sexton and Rubio played well offensively and defensively respectively, now if only they can learn from one another to shore up their inconsistencies on those other ends of the court.

The Top Three Performers

1. Cedi Osman
2. Darius Garland
3. Jarrett Allen

I’ve dunked on Cedi Osman when he shot badly and I’ll praise him when he does well. Playing 17 minutes is off-putting, but his defense isn’t getting better. He is getting more consistent on his three-point shot, finishing 4-7 on the day (all from behind the arc) with 12 points. Osman’s night gets him the one point for the game.

I don’t expect Darius Garland to score 19 points on nine shots, but I’m gonna like it whenever it happens. Garland had 19 points and 10 assists while spending most of the night guarding Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, so all things said, he did have a great game, hence his two-points.

The three-pointer for the game goes to Jarrett Allen, however. He had 24 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block; all while shooting 60% from the floor. Allen is an effective and brilliant player down low. This shouldn’t have been surprising to anyone that he gets awarded the three-pointer for the day.

Yearly Standing:

1. Jarrett Allen (11 points)
2. Ricky Rubio (8 points)
3. *TIE* Collin Sexton/Lauri Markkanen/Evan Mobley/Kevin Love/ Cedi Osman (6 points)
4. Darius Garland (4 points)
5. Dylan Windler (1 point)