Final Score: Cleveland Cavaliers right the ship, beat Charlotte Hornets 115-92

In the first quarter against the Charlotte Hornets, the Cleveland Cavaliers appeared lifeless and devoid of any spark. The Cavs eventually found an offensive rhythm toward the end of the second quarter and carried the momentum to swat away the Hornets for the remainder of the game.

The Stars appeared to align against Charlotte

Against the Hornets, it appeared that it was a steady-the-ship performance for all of the Cavalier X-factors.

Darius Garland looked confident with the ball in a way we haven’t always seen since Mitchell was sidelined. Garland was seeking beneficial matchups and was taking advantage of the situations as they came.

Garland with this level of aggressiveness and decisiveness running the pick and roll allows for a greater rim threat with the ball in his hands. Lately, with the ball in his hands, opposing defenses have caught on that due to his slighter frame, he is much more of a perimeter threat and therefore is comfortable not bringing a second defender.

Their lead flood general gaining back any semblance of confidence is greatly needed for this Cavaliers offense without Donovan Mitchell. Lately, the offense has gone through long spells where the offense is stagnant and doesn’t provide much for defenses to chew on. Garland finished against the Hornets with 10 assists and only three turnovers.

Evan Mobley, also had himself a good night, seemingly picking up where he left off against the Heat last night. Mobley had scoring runs in this game single-handedly putting the Cavaliers’ offense on his back. The Hornets are a shorter team overall and don’t have many options to prevent the seven-footer from hunting the matchups necessary to provide quality looks.

Seeing Mobley only in his second game back from injury looks as confident as he has is a great sign. Mobley coming back from his prior injury appeared to have taken a leap in aggressiveness and this recent pair of games indicates that this version of Mobley might be the player he is trying to be going forward. Mobley tied for the scoring leader with 17 points while flirting with a triple-double finishing the night with 7 rebounds and 8 assists.

Jarrett Allen was rim-running with the best of them as well. When he and Darius get into a groove as we saw tonight, the pairing feels almost unstoppable. Allen took advantage of the Hornets not being able to really match the level of physicality and athleticism down low and was just destroying them off the roll. Allen has felt like the most consistent Cavalier this season and tonight was just another excellent performance from him finishing the night with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Big Picture

Keeping pace with the Knicks is pivotal for the Cavs as the regular season dwindles down. While a win against the lowly Hornets is not something to take as the blueprint going forward, it is truly an every-win-counts situation as the difference between the three seeds and the sixth seed is only three and a half games.

With another game against the Hornets on the horizon this Wednesday, hopefully, the Cavaliers can execute the way they did tonight. If not, winnable games like tonight, are few and far between as everyone wants to be the team that knocks you down a spot.