Cavs Top 3: Evan Mobley has an awful game in Celtics rematch

Evan Mobley was flat-out bad against the Celtics on Monday night.

The Browns got wrecked in Foxborough on Sunday, and the Cavs were hoping to avoid the same pitfall as their pig-skinned-playing brethren. The score was a lot better, and the Cavs actually played defense, but like with the Browns, the injuries were too much to overcome. Without Kevin Love, Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, and Jarrett Allen, the Cavaliers fell short 98-92 against Boston, and Evan Mobley was just awful all game long.

While Mobley did have nine rebounds and five assists, he also went 0-11 from the floor and scored just one point the entire game. Clearly not his usual output, and frankly it was a game that was bound to happen at some point during his rookie season; it just would’ve been great for it to not happen in another easy-to-win game.

While Mobley was awful, shoutout to Issac Okoro, who missed the Three Good but bounced back with 12 points on 50% from the floor. He still only shot 25% from three but as long as he’s contributing offensively to some degree, that’s all you can really ask for. I mean, you should be asking for far more from the fifth overall pick but at this point, you’ll take what you can get.

The Top 3 Cavs players against the Celtics (part two)

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. Denzel Valentine
3. Dean Wade

Just awful. The worst player from Monday’s game was obviously Evan Mobley, who went 0-11 from the floor. Clearly, he does better when he has someone next to him to help take the pressure off. To be fair, that’s not a completely unwarranted request. You should have two low-post threats on the court at all times. Still, shooting 11 shots and making none? That’s going to get you here for today.

Denzel Valentine is not an NBA-caliber starter. He’s barely an NBA-caliber bench player but here we are. Sure, he can play solid defense but when you’re without four of your best offensive players, some guys are going to have to get minutes. So Valentine got the minutes on Monday.

Lastly is Dean Wade, who has been so unimpressive that it’s actually impressive how unimpressive he’s been. He’s played 168 minutes since the start of November and he’s scored just 34 points. There are players on this team that can put up 30 points in about 35 minutes for proper context. He’s averaging less than four points on the year and on Monday he shot an 0-4 game. Considering he was seen as a stretch big, one would hope that Wade would be able to shoot at least. Instead, he’s shooting 26.8% from three.

The Top Three Performers

1. Darius Garland
2. Cedi Osman
3. Ricky Rubio

The first point-getter is Darius Garland, who gets the one point for his performance on Monday. Solid defense, 40% from inside the arc and 42% from outside really shows you how far he’s come from just last year alone.

Cedi Osman gets the two points after shooting 10-17 from the floor and 6-12 from the three-point line.

Yearly Standing:

Ricky Rubio (19 points)
Jarrett Allen (16 points)
Darius Garland (13 points)
Evan Mobley (12 points)
Cedi Osman(11 points)
*TIE* Collin Sexton/Lauri Markkanen/Kevin Love/ (6 points)
Dylan Windler (1 point)