Cleveland Cavaliers hold off late Brooklyn Nets surge on the road

Cleveland Cavaliers secure two consecutive victories

The Cleveland Cavaliers successfully held off a late Brooklyn Nets run on the road to win, 115-109. With an all-important victory against a conference opponent chasing the same playoff-seeding position, the Cavs continue solidifying their hold of fourth place in the East with a 46-28 record.

Coming off an easy romp over the Washington Wizards back in Cleveland a couple of nights ago, the Cavaliers broke away after the halftime break and raced to a 24-point advantage over the Nets, before coasting early in the fourth quarter to allow Brooklyn to mount a comeback attempt.

The home team quickly raced to an 11-0 run in that final period and was even able to come to within two possessions, but found their efforts simply a little too late.

Donovan Mitchell had a field night for the Cavs which was punctuated by a monstrous poster jam over Nets forward Yuta Watanabe, leading all scorers with 31 points to go with five rebounds and three assists. Former Nets swingman Caris LeVert came off the bench to add 18, while Evan Mobley and Darius Garland each added 17 markers for Cleveland.

On the other end, sophomore center Dayron Sharpe matched his career-high in scoring with 20, while Spencer Dinwiddie and Mikal Bridges added a combined 37 points in the loss for Brooklyn.

The Cavs should continue chasing homecourt advantage

While the starters have always held their own, Cavaliers reserves such as Caris LeVert, Ricky Rubio, and Cedi Osman will play a huge part in the team’s success or failure in their hunt for a deep postseason run.

A mostly healthy Cavs team continues to slowly round into form, but the bench unit will prove vital in any attempt to win their first playoff in the post-LeBron James era.

With last year’s late collapse that led the team to crash out after losing both play-in tournament games against the Brooklyn Nets and the Atlanta Hawks, the young team needs to secure every advantage they could get, and chasing home-court advantage and higher seeding is a no-brainer.

While the Cavs are still 3.5 games behind the third-placed Philadephia 76ers, they are also only the same number of games ahead of the fifth-seeded New York Knicks, and every trying to win every game from hereon should continue to be a matter of priority.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will remain on the road for a couple more days in The Big Apple as they are set to have one more meeting in the second leg of a back-to-back against the Brooklyn Nets on March 23rd.