Cleveland will play the first of two games at Charlotte when the teams meet on Sunday night. The Cavaliers won three straight games before losing at Miami on Friday in a 119-115 final, failing to cover the spread as 3-point underdogs. Charlotte opened its five-game homestand against Utah on Saturday night, but this story was published prior to that contest.
Cleveland was on fire early in February, winning seven consecutive games to get to 38-22 overall. The Cavaliers lost four of their following five games, with their lone win coming against Toronto in their final game of the month. They bounced back from that rough patch with a three-game winning streak, beating Detroit, Boston and Miami. That streak came to an end when they faced Miami in the second game of the back-to-back, falling to the Heat by four points on Friday. Cleveland is now heading to Charlotte for another two-game road trip against one team, which it will do again with two games in Brooklyn later this month.
spoke too soon…EIGHT 3PM* #LetEmKnow https://t.co/r1jgmATlMn pic.twitter.com/A5gwOOEWTy
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 11, 2023
The Cavaliers are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, sitting 3.5 games behind Philadelphia for third place and 2.5 games ahead of New York for fourth place. They held a 14-point lead in the second half at Miami on Friday, but Jimmy Butler scored 12 of his 33 points in the final 5:11 for the Heat. Donovan Mitchell led all scorers with 42 points for Cleveland after scoring 40 points against Boston on Monday. He also scored 44 points against the Celtics on March 1, so he has been on fire this month. Cleveland has relied on its defense, as it ranks No. 25 in the NBA in scoring (112.0). It is facing a Charlotte defense that is No. 24 (117.5). Center Jarrett Allen (eye) and point guard Darius Garland (quad) are both questionable for this game.
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