The Cleveland Cavaliers are arriving in the City of Brotherly Love with a bitter taste in their mouth.
The Cavaliers will play back-to-back road games against the Philadelphia 76ers, beginning with Wednesday’s tilt.
Cleveland has lost three of its last five games, but the most recent defeat was a particularly disappointing one. On Monday, the Cavaliers dropped a 123-112 decision to the Utah Jazz, who had lost their previous game to the Charlotte Hornets by a 150-95 score.
Yet, Utah came out and outscored Cleveland by 12 points in the first quarter. The Jazz dominated the Cavaliers 50-30 on the glass and limited Donovan Mitchell to 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting.
“They lost by (55 points) and were ready to go,” Mitchell said. “It’s tough. The Jazz came in and outplayed us. We are all at fault for not coming out ready to go.”
Darius Garland led the Cavaliers with 23 points, while Evan Mobley had 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Cleveland outscored Utah 40-20 in the second quarter but got outscored by 33 points over the other three frames.
“Offensively, we kept running into a brick wall,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We struggled. We got to the paint and couldn’t finish.”
One bright spot for Cleveland was the play of Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who supplied 13 points, three rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 19 minutes off the bench.
“We need him right now,” Atkinson said. “He’s playing like an excellent rotational player. He plays really hard. He’s impressive. I like how he runs the floor. He’s shooting the ball better. He has better arc on his shot.”
The Sixers, meanwhile, are coming in with a different vibe following Monday’s resounding 115-102 victory over the Toronto Raptors. They outscored the Raptors 80-51 in the first half and cruised to their sixth win in eight games.
Tyrese Maxey led the way with 33 points, while Joel Embiid contributed 27 points and said afterwards that he was motivated by the Raptors’ trash talk after they beat the Sixers in overtime one day earlier.
“That’s why (Monday), I had to make sure everybody was on point and myself to kind of set the tone,” Embiid said. “We did have a good start.”
Philadelphia is experiencing a rare stretch of good health at the moment. Their sudden depth has reduced playing time for reserves such as Jared McCain, although it has given the team a chance to form some chemistry, particularly among the “big three” of Maxey, Embiid and Paul George.
“I just want to see us keep improving and getting better,” said Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse, who added that “there’s still so much to learn and improve on.”
The Cavaliers will try their best to contain a well-balanced roster that features Maxey (30.9 points) on the perimeter, alongside talented rookie VJ Edgecombe (16.1). They also must keep a close eye on Embiid (23.7), who enters having scored at least 20 points in each of his last 11 games.
“He’s been getting some critical buckets,” Nurse said.
The teams have met once so far this season. The Cavaliers posted a 132-121 home victory over the Sixers on Nov. 5 as Mitchell scored 46 points on 15-of-21 shooting.
