The Cleveland Cavaliers closed the book on their frustrating month of January with a loss to the Dallas Mavericks, 104-97 at the American Airlines Center. The loss brought the Cavs to 7-8 in the month of January.
The Cavaliers are notoriously bad in the second night of back-to-back games, and Monday night was no different. The Cavaliers lacked energy on offense and defense. For the um-teenth time this year, they didn’t really care.
In the Cavaliers’ defense, Kevin Love was unavailable for the game, which meant that Richard Jefferson started at the power forward position. The rotations for the Cavaliers were atypical and the youthful Mavericks were able to out-energy the Cavs to get good opportunities to score.
Offensively, the Cavaliers were paced by LeBron James who scored 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Kyrie Irving added 18 points, but was ice cold from the floor, shooting a paltry 7-for-21. On the bright side, Jordan McRae showed his offensive capabilities, adding 11 points in 3o minutes, while Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye each knocked down 3 three-pointers on their way to 11 points apiece.
After the game, the LeBron seemed to chalk up the loss to a lack of experience from missing the likes of Kevin Love, JR Smith, and Chris Andersen. The King seemed pretty even keel moving forward, and for now the Cavaliers should follow his lead.
The Cavaliers will look to regroup and start February on a better note Wednesday night at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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