Cavaliers falter against Sixers despite hot start, lose three straight games

Cleveland Cavaliers losing skid extends to three games

The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ woes continue after failing to hold off a late Philadelphia 76ers offensive to lose, 125-119. Squandering a huge first-half advantage on the road, the Cavs have now fallen in three straight games.

An early Cleveland scoring avalanche led to a 43-point opening quarter, erecting a lead that swelled to as much as 21. However, the Sixers began to rally back late in the first half and finally took their first lead of the game in the opening seconds of the fourth period.

All-Star guard Darius Garland, still nursing a problematic back, continued to sizzle for the Cavs. Not only did he lead the team in scoring with 26, but the 22-year-old rising star also notched a career-high 19 assists while captaining the ship for Cleveland.

Unfortunately, Philadelphia’s own point guard Tyrese Maxey also erupted with 33 points to complement superstars Joel Embiid and James Harden as the new-look Sixers rallied to a late victory.

Cavs in danger of slipping into Play-in territory

The usually defensive-minded Isaac Okoro also played a massive role in the early Cavs surge, scoring 13 in the opening quarter en route to a season-high 22 points. He joins four Cavaliers players in the game to rack up at least 20 points (Jarrett Allen and Cedi Osman each had 20).

Despite a much-improved offense with most of the rotation players back in uniform, the defense was once again pretty horrid. Given this was against one of the top-flight teams in the conference, but still.

The usually stifling defensive team had regularly held opponents to about or below a hundred points prior to the All-Star break, but have now given up their worst defensive rating in back-to-back games.

Cleveland would want to avoid sliding all the way down to Play-in territory but is dangerously close after losing three consecutive games and falling to sixth place with a 36-27 record.

Next up for the Cleveland Cavaliers would be the visiting Toronto Raptors on March 6, a team also hot in pursuit of securing a top-six seed in a suffocatingly close playoff race during this final few weeks of the regular season.