After a solid 116-102 win on Tuesday over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Cleveland Cavaliers looked to build some momentum on Friday as they hosted the surprising Sacramento Kings.
Unfortunately, they had to go to battle without their biggest star.
Guard Donovan Mitchell was ruled out due to a sore lower right leg, and without his scoring and explosiveness, Cleveland struggled.
The team fell behind early, and although it fought back to take a solid lead deep into the fourth quarter, the Kings blitzed them with a 19-0 run and ended up winning, 106-95.
Cleveland Had Problems Aplenty On Friday Without Mitchell
For the game, the Cavs shot just 43.0 percent, and although Cedi Osman came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, no one else was efficient offensively.
Defensively, they couldn’t contain Harrison Barnes, who had 20 points on just nine shots, and guard Kevin Huerter was a thorn in their side by scoring 19 points and hitting two 3-pointers in the final minute of the game.
This loss hurts even more considering De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento’s best player, was not in uniform, and yet it had its way with the Cavs in several ways, in Cleveland of all places.
Kings against the Cavs tonight:
— Held a top 10 offense to under 100 PTS
— Most 3P against the best defense
— 2nd team to beat the Cavs at home
— Closed the game on a 19-0 runLight the Beam. pic.twitter.com/FE84gpTXVN
— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 10, 2022
Turnovers were a problem, as Darius Garland had six, Jarrett Allen had five, and the team as a whole had 19.
With a 14-10 record, the Kings are in fifth place in the Western Conference, a place few predicted they would be in by this point of the season.
Although the Cavs, by virtue of a 16-10 record, are still third in the Eastern Conference, they have some work to do when it comes to finding consistency.
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