Cavs Fall to Sixers 128-105; Three Takeaways from Sunday’s Setback

Cleveland – The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 128-105 at home on Sunday night.  The Cavs fall to 7-23 and will travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers Tuesday night and look to get back into the win column.  Here are three takeaways from the loss:

1: Inconsistency 

The Cavs outscored the 76ers 36-29 in the first quarter and led by as many as ten points in the first half.  The Sixers outscored Cleveland by 14 in the second quarter.  Cleveland cut the deficit to just one point towards the end of the third quarter but then Philadelphia went on a 14-0 run to take a 100-85 lead early in the fourth.  The Cavs were outscored 39-20 in the fourth quarter.  That’s bad defense and bad offense.

2: N(O?)waba

David Nwaba played just 15 minutes for the Cavs but had the highest plus/minus for the Cavs and the highest out of any bench player in the game at +14.  Nwaba shot 4-of-6 and made a three-pointer, good for nine points on the evening.  Alec Burks had the worst plus/minus with a -28.  It would seem wise to get David Nwaba more playing time in the near future.

3: Dominant Simmons: 

Ben Simmons recorded a triple-double in tonight’s game.  Simmons had 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting and looked aggressive in the game.  Simmons recorded 11 rebounds while passing for 14 assists.  Possibly the most important stat of his game was perhaps the fact that he recorded zero turnovers.  Simmons dominated the Cavs and there was a specific play in particular that can sum up how dominant Simmons was tonight:

.@BenSimmons25 bullied the rook ? pic.twitter.com/4r66nTK3eu

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 16, 2018