Denver Nuggets end road trip vs. J.R. Smith, Cleveland Cavaliers

 

The Denver Nuggets five-game road trip makes its final stop today in Cleveland to face LeBron James and old friends J.R. Smith and Timofey Mozgov. The Cavaliers are 49-20, but it seems that trouble is always right around the corner for one of the league’s most talked about teams.

Just Google LeBron James and the three most recent headlines?

1.) LeBron James says Cleveland Cavaliers’ losing streak at Miami Heat ‘a little concerning’

2.) LeBron James, Cavaliers have neither consistency nor reason to panic after Miami massacre

3.) LeBron got taunted by Heat fans again with “LeBron needs Riley!” chants

CONCERNING, MASSACRE, TAUNTED

Pretty bizarre words surrounding a 49-20 team. But it makes sense as the Cavaliers have been “enjoying” a bizarre season that saw them fire their head coach David Blatt when the team was an Eastern Conference best 30-11, and replace him with LeBron’s guy, former Nuggets draft pick, Tyronn Lue.

And then we have LeBron trolling everyone on Instagram with posts like this:

It’s Not Who You Are Underneath, It’s What You Do That Defines You!

A photo posted by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Mar 6, 2016 at 8:22pm PST

 

Regular Season Game 71
Nuggets (29-41)	vs	Cavaliers (49-20)
5:00 p.m. MT	on	Altitude, 950AM
Projected Starters
Nuggets		Cavaliers
Emmanuel Mudiay Gary Harris JaKarr Sampson Kenneth Faried Nikola Jokic		Kyrie Irving J.R. Smith Iman Shumpert LeBron James Kevin Love

Injuries: 

One has to wonder if Love is just sick of playing for the Cavs. The cheesy sarcasm is free.

Cavaliers rotations all over the place 

Cleveland got blown out in Miami to the tune of 122-101 on March 20th, while Richard Jefferson saw the most minutes off the bench with 29. Yes, the same 35 year-old Jefferson who averaged just 5.8 points for the Dallas Mavericks last season and is averaging just 5.6 points this season.

Matthew Dellavedova has carved out a major role for the Cavs off the bench and is averaging 25.5 minutes per game, scoring 7.9 points and averaging 4.5 assists. Dellavedova has started 11 games this season, and the Cavaliers are still trying to figure out their starting lineup and rotations since changing coaches and adding Channing Frye to the mix at the trade deadline.

It seems crazy that a team that is 49-20 has so many questions looming ahead of the playoffs. The small starting lineup is something Lue is experimenting with, as well as mixing in bench players like Jefferson, Dellavedova, Mozgov and Tristan Thompson.

Checking in on Smith and Mozgov

J.R. has appeared and started in 65 games this season and averages over 30 minutes a night. He has been a big time player for Cleveland this season. He is averaging 12.3 points, but still shooting just 40.8 percent from the field on 11.2 shots per game. Smith’s been brilliant from 3-point land where he’s shooting 39.4 percent on 6.5 attempts.

Mozgov, on the other hand, has lost his spot in the starting lineup and has been relegated to 17.3 minutes per game, but has seen that time fall off from 20.2 in November to just 13.6 per game through 10 games in March (including a Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision on March 16th vs the Mavericks). Mozzy is scoring a bit under his career average of 6.9 points at 6.3 this season, due to the dip in playing time — as he’s still shooting above his career field goal percentage at 55.9 percent from 53.5 percent.

Nuggets refuse to lose… four or more

The Nuggets lost six games between Dec. 26th and Jan. 3rd. Since that time the Nuggets have not lost more than three in a row, in fact they’ve staved off losing streaks of 2+ games five times and 3+ games twice. While losing two or three in a row is not good, it has shown that this team can regroup and rid themselves of the dreaded long losing streaks that start to take a toll on locker rooms.