Written by Jesse Lamovsky

---

When you can’t shoot and can’t play defense you won’t win many games. That, in a nutshell, was the story of Cleveland’s 103-95 loss to the visiting Dallas Mavericks Saturday night. The Mavericks were on the second night of a back-to-back while the Cavaliers hadn’t played since Tuesday, but that didn’t matter as the Wine & Gold dropped their fifth straight to fall to 2-7.

Offensively the Cavaliers were frigid from wherever they chose to launch it. Their attempts to go inside were thwarted by the long arm of center Chris Kaman, who accounted for six of Dallas’s fourteen blocked shots on the night. They bricked away at an 8-of-25 clip from three-point range. Overall the Cavaliers shot 37.5 percent, as they looked like the more tired team in spite of having three days’ off going into the game.

Standouts were few for Cleveland. Daniel Gibson continued his fine play with 16 points and four three-pointers; Tristan Thompson finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists, and Omri Casspi provided some rebounding and energy in a brief stint off the bench.

But that was pretty much it. Kyrie Irving hit for a game-high 26 on 11-of-21 shooting. But he left the game briefly with a finger injury, hit just 2-of-7 from downtown, came up empty on fourth-quarter heroics and didn’t account for a single assist, despite being a point guard. Dion Waiters continued his slump from the field, hitting 3-of-16 although he did finish with 16 points, most of them from the free-throw line.

But the biggest disappointment was Anderson Varejao, who followed up his 35-and-18 masterpiece in Brooklyn with a paltry 4 points and 7 rebounds. Andy was of sorts all night. He hit just 2-of-11 from the field- this from a guy who entered the game at 60.8 percent- seemed bothered by Kaman’s length inside and spent much of the evening grumpily yelling and waving his arms at the officials. It was easily his worst performance of the season.  

Dallas, meanwhile, ripped cord with regularity all night. The Mavericks shot 51.4 percent and hit 10-of-23 on three-pointers, stroking seven of their last nine attempts from downtown. Six Mavs finished in double figures, led by O.J. Mayo’s 19 points. Kaman had a big night with 15 points, 7 rebounds and those 6 blocks. Dallas also got 45 points from its bench. Not even 22 turnovers could put a damper on their performance.

The crucial point of the fourth-quarter told the story of this game. After Cleveland tied the game at 89-89 with 5:04 left, the Mavericks drilled four consecutive shots and ripped off nine unanswered points to make it 98-89 with 3:05 left. The Cavalier response to Dallas’s run consisted of an Irving turnover and bad misses by Irving and Varejao. That was pretty much the long and short of Saturday night- bad defense, bad offense and defeat.

This game could only be encouraging to those who want the maximum number of ping pong balls in the Lottery hopper next May. Cleveland had the fresh legs and the home-court against a team that had played on the road the night before. If there was ever a game to be won, it was this one. Yet the Cavaliers just flat-out weren’t up to the challenge. With a callow roster, a thin bench and a shaky defense, there will be plenty more nights like this one before this season is through.

Next: Sunday night at 6:00 when the Cavaliers go back on the road to face the 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.