Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland. ESPN Cleveland/Rob Lorenzo
Game Night Observations: Not locked in, Garland's bad luck, and the unforgettable altitude
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.comDENVER – You may have heard this before, but the Cleveland Cavaliers lost a game in which they allowed their opponent to shoot the lights out from beyond the 3-point arc. On Friday night, the Denver Nuggets were the latest team to take control of a game against the Cavaliers with a barrage of 3-pointers in a 121-108 loss for the Cavs.
The Nuggets finished the night with 17 made 3-pointers, making this the 11th game in which an opponent has made 15 or more 3-pointers against the Cavs. As expected, the Cavs haven’t fared well in those games, now dropping to 1-10 after Friday’s loss.
Whether this is the result of bad luck or a hole in Cleveland’s top ranked defense isn’t necessarily a question that can be answered directly following a game. According to head coach J.B. Bickerstaff it was the result of not being locked in on Friday night.
“I mean, they made shots and they do things to put you in a tough spot,” Bickerstaff said. “But again, I just don't think we were at our best tonight. We're better than that defensively. And I just don't think we had our best tonight.”
That wasn’t the only area in which the Cavs weren’t locked in, either. Despite scoring 108 points without All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, the offensive performance was one that had quite a few holes in it. Cleveland shot just 51.7% in the paint against a Nuggets defense that ranks 23rd in opponent paint points.
The place where the lack of focus may have been at the free throw line. The Cavs missed 16 free throws in a game that they lost by 13. It’s not a fair expectation to make every single free throw attempted, but missing nearly half of the 32 attempted shots from the foul line is also unacceptable.
Evan Mobley missed all six free throws he attempted, Jarrett Allen missed three, Darius Garland missed a pair, and so did Caris LeVert. That type of night from the free throw line very rarely comes in a winning effort.
“I don't think we gave them our best shot on both ends of the floor,” Garland said. “I think we wasn't really locked in. We missed a lot of free throws, missed a lot of bunnies that we usually make. Then just getting back in transition. I mean, that just really killed us.”
Garland’s health
Speaking of Garland, he returned on Friday from a three-game absence with a sprained right thumb that was suffered against the Indiana Pacers last week. He started the game against the Nuggets playing with a wrap on his right thumb, but removed it during a break in the action and said after the game that he did so because he was uncomfortable.
It’s fair to say that Garland’s performance on Friday night was impacted by the injury to his thumb. He finished the night 8-of-20 from the field and 1-of-6 from 3-point range after starting off the night making just two of his first 12 shots. Right now, Garland says, there really aren’t parts of the game that his thumb isn’t bothering him for.
“All 48 minutes, literally,” Garland said of when his thumb impacts his play. “I'm trying to just go out there and just play through it, really. I know it's gonna have like an effect on me, so I was just trying to go through and just play my game without it.”
It was clear at parts of the night that Garland was playing through pain. There were two different instances during the game when he was on the ground after taking a hit from a Denver player. Once was in the face and another one was across the hand.
After Denver’s Jamal Murray poked Garland in the eye causing him to spend time on the ground, Murray went to help him up. Murray grabbed Garland’s right hand and Garland immediately pulled it back to his chest.
“Yeah. I mean, he just grabbed it, so, I mean, that aggravated it a little bit and then the slap down just took it over the top.”
Garland has had a rather unlucky year as far as injuries go. If there were a leaderboard for getting smacked in the face, it’s hard to imagine any other NBA player being ahead of him. Adding the thumb injury to that only increases the issues that Garland has had. Through it all, Garland continues to do his best to play through it.
“He kept fighting,” Bickerstaff said. “So, we're just going to figure it out and we got to figure out how to help him. But again, I thought he got through it. He's a tough kid, but we just have to find a way to protect them if we can.
“I mean he keeps finding a way to get hit in the face again. And gets chopped on the hand again. So, he's out there taking a beating. And again, I think it's just things that we got to look out and figure out how we protect him.”
The altitude
The Denver Nuggets do everything imaginable to remind their opponents that they’re playing an altitude laced environment that’s unlike almost any other in the NBA. There’s a sign walking into Ball Arena that states the elevation, the number 5,280 is built into the hardwood just below the free throw line, there are members of Denver’s entertainment team that hold signs on the Cavs side of the floor during the warm up to remind them about lower oxygen levels, and when the Cavs are introduced, the public address announcer mentions that Cleveland is only 653 feet above sea level.
The feeling of the altitude definitely has an impact on players, how much exactly is unable to be quantified. The Nuggets want opponents to remember that it has an impact though. Most teams are eager to talk about how they have the best fans in the NBA and that’s their homecourt advantage. The Nuggets are probably guilty of that, too, but the real home court advantage for them is the altitude at which they play at.
It's the advantage that the organization won’t let anyone forget, either.
