The Cleveland Cavaliers have been hot and cold lately, as they’ve won just seven of their last 15 games after starting the season 8-1.
To make matters worse, starting center Jarrett Allen and backup forward Dean Wade are out with injuries, which is a blow to a Cavs team that wasn’t deep to begin with.
#Cavs Jarrett Allen, who has missed the last 5 games with a lower back contusion, is listed QUESTIONABLE for tomorrow night’s game versus the Los Angeles Lakers
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) December 5, 2022
Cavaliers forward Dean Wade is expected to be out 3-to-4 weeks with a left shoulder injury, team says.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 4, 2022
These two men must step things up in order to help the team generate some real sustained momentum in the days to come.
Isaac Okoro
Last season, the 6-foot-5 wing showed signs of progress, improving his overall shooting percentage from 42.0 to 48.0 and his 3-point shooting accuracy from 29.0 percent to 35.0 percent.
But so far this season, he has regressed big time.
Okoro is hitting just 39.8 percent of his shots from the field and 20.0 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.
With fellow wing Caris LeVert struggling himself with his shooting this year, the Cavs need Okoro to at least return to the level he played at last year, as their options at small forward aren’t too great.
Evan Mobley
Mobley has stepped up his rebounding lately in the absence of Allen, but Cleveland needs some more offense from him.
He has picked up his shooting accuracy from 50.8 percent last year to 56.4 percent this year, but the team needs him to be more assertive offensively, as it has had problems putting up enough points to win.
Mobley will face one of the bigger tests of his young career on Tuesday when the Los Angeles Lakers come to town, which means he will go up against Anthony Davis, who is playing perhaps the best ball of his life.
Davis was just named Western Conference Player of the Week and is coming off 44-point and 55-point performances over the weekend.
Leave a Reply