Cavs’ offense comes alive in 139-132 victory

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers broke out of their offensive slump with a showing that was reminiscent of last regular season. The ball was zipping around the court, and they continually poured in back-breaking threes to defeat the Charlotte Hornets 139-132.

This was a game the Cavs desperately needed. They came into this one losing three straight, four of their last five, and five of their last seven. In that stretch, they’ve struggled to make outside shots and weren’t able to provide anything on the other end to make up for it.

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This wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch. The Cavs’ incoherent and undisciplined defense made the Hornets’ 21st-ranked offense look like a juggernaut. Cleveland was consistently in rotation, trying to find the open man before the ball. This led to Charlotte generating clean outside looks seemingly whenever they wanted to.

Fortunately for Cleveland, they were able to overcome their poor defense by playing better offense of their own. They finally hit their outside shots as they went 24-44 (54.5%) from distance. And that was the difference in this game.

For the second game in a row, Darius Garland looked like the All-Star player he was before his toe injury. He was able to continually knife into the teeth of the defense to create for himself and others. It also helped that he had his outside shot going. He finished with 27 points and 10 assists on 9-15 shooting while going 5-6 from three.

Donovan Mitchell blended his game perfectly with Garland’s. He was an efficient three-level scorer as he provided a game-high 30 points on 10-18 shooting to go along with five assists.

DeAndre Hunter had a much-needed good game after struggling for the better part of a month. An elbow to the face seemed to unlock a different gear. He finished with 27 points on 9-13 shooting, which included going 4-5 from beyond the arc.

Sam Merrill returned to the lineup for the first time in a month. He was active on both ends of the floor, even though he couldn’t get his shot to fall. He ended with four points on 2-7 shooting with five assists and a steal.

Charlotte was led by 23 points from LaMelo Ball and 20 points from both Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller.

The Cavaliers will look to build on this momentum as they host the New Orleans Pelicans Tuesday night.