Cavs' Closeout Crisis Not Completely Behind Them

Kings use 16-0 run to complete stunning comeback Friday night

Jon Rudder | Dec 10, 2022

Cavs' Closeout Crisis Not Completely Behind Them /

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Cleveland Cavaliers

There aren’t a whole lot of words to describe the Cavaliers meltdown Friday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff uttered just three during his postgame media comments to describe his assessment of what happened in final minutes of the Cavaliers 106-95 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

“Nothing, that's it,” Bickerstaff said.

Normally chatty and more than willing to deliver a thorough explanation, even in defeat, Bickerstaff was noticeably short.

Friday's setback against the Kings marked just the second loss the Cavs' have taken on their home floor this season, but there was a sense of frustration following this loss. The Cavs had thought they had put their early season predisposition for blowing late-game leads behind them until it reared its ugly head again against Sacramento.

"We didn't execute well enough, couldn't create anything for one another. And then we had shots we turned down," Bickerstaff said. "I thought that we're open so we didn't do a good job of closing."

The Cavs led 93-85 With 5:34 to play before it all unraveled. Turnovers, poor shot selection or a reluctance to shoot altogether doomed the Wine and Gold down the stretch.

Sacramento rattled off 16-straight points over the final 4:05 to seal the Cavaliers fate.

"It just it just didn't go well for us," said Cavaliers' forward Cedi Osman.

Osman scored 17 points and had an eye popping block on Trey Lyles as the third-quarter wound down. He swatted away what looked like a sure-fire dunk and in turn, Isaac Okoro canned a corner three from the corner.

Sheesh, @cediosman‼️
#LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/45rU8xswfS
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) December 10, 2022

Cleveland had been 13-2 when leading after the 3rd quarter this season, until Friday night.

"I think we had a couple of turnovers, but I think we had a we had open shots that were missed," Osman said. "Defensively, we let them just get comfortable in those last four minutes and they made a they made a couple of threes."

Is it concerning that the Cavs have inexplicably lost their focus at the most critical of times?

"We can't lose our concentration and we can get out of the system because we know that they have a shooters and we let them have an open threes," Osman said.

The Kings shot 50-percent (3-of-6) from three-point range in the fourth quarter, but all three of their makes came in the final four minutes when things began to spiral out of control for the Cavs. They committed 19 turnovers on the night, 18 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

"They like to run. In those last 4 minutes, I think they made like two threes in transition," Osman said. "I think we were doing a pretty good job in fast break. But I mean, they scored 16 in those last four minutes. They made two threes. We lost our concentration because obviously we couldn't do our job offensively."

Caris LeVert started in place of Donovan Mitchell, who was out with soreness in his lower right leg. The injury dates back to the Golden State game that was re-aggravated against Toronto. With six games in the next nine days, Bickerstaff wanted to proceed with caution.

"Our responsibility is to do what's best for the 82 games," Bickerstaff said. "How you handle minutes, how you handle load. How the schedule before and after falls, those are all things we take into consideration."

LeVert led the Cavs with a game-high 22 points, six rebounds and six assists in his first start since November 16th. After earning the starting small-forward role out of training camp, he admittedly said he felt more comfortable as an off-ball guard.

"That's my natural position and I think that was another reason why I slid to the bench to play more of my natural position," LeVert said.

The Cavs were also without Kevin Love, who is dealing with a sore lower back and Dean Wade. Friday's loss snapped a seven-game home winning streak for Cleveland and was the first suffered on their home floor since a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on November 13th.

Cleveland won't have much time to stew on the loss with Oklahoma City in town Saturday evening.

"We have to be better tomorrow," Osman said.

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