The Cleveland Cavaliers’ injury report on Sunday was long. Headlined by Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland’s injury report also included Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro, among others.
Those injuries, though, did not ultimately matter with the Cleveland Cavaliers beating the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets 121-109. It marked a third straight win for the Cavs, a season-high win streak.
Nightly Notables
Darius Garland led the Cavs with 26 points and 6 assists. Evan Mobley added 16 point and 10 rebounds, while Jarrett Allen added 15 points and 5 assists while guarding and going at Nikola Jokic all night.
Rookie Craig Porter Jr. added 21 points and 4 assists off the bench. For Denver, Jokic was limited to 27 minutes with foul trouble and finished with 18 points, 10 assists and 7 assists. He picked up his fifth foul with 7:32 to go in the second quarter and the Nuggets never made a strong push the rest of the way.
Well, that happened…
This game was not short on highlight plays. Mobley, for instance, had an outrageous recovery to get at Christian Braun that’s should be in any compilations of his defensive season. Pick Garland bucket and it’s probably worth a second look.
But first let’s look at Craig Porter Jr. — who continues to make a real chase to play minutes for the Cavs as the team’s backup point guard. He is composed and confident everywhere he’s at on the floor with a knack for making impact plays. Case in point:
Then there’s Dean Wade. Still not sure how he did this.
Big Picture
This marks Cleveland’s third straight win and they looked as good as they’ve looked all season. Considering how many players were out with injury — especially Mitchell — this is nothing short of an impressive win. It’s the kind of win that makes you look at this team again and wonder what’s coming once they get healthy and get more in sync.
It also sets the stage for a big week of Cavs basketball. First up is the 76ers in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Then, it’s the Miami Heat in Cleveland on Wednesday evening. And then on Sunday, it’s LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
That’s a fun week of basketball — and one that could be continued success for the Cavs, especially if they can get some injured players back.
