Looking to make headway in the Eastern Conference playoff race, the Cleveland Cavaliers will play the second of three straight road games when they visit the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.
Cleveland (42-27) bounced back from a 130-120 loss at home on Sunday to struggling Dallas with a 123-116 win in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Evan Mobley finished with 27 points and 15 rebounds in the win, while James Harden scored 27 points for his seventh 20-plus-point performance since joining the Cavaliers.
“They’re definitely starting to get some nice synergy, those two, in the pick-and-roll,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said of Harden and Mobley. “James is finding (Mobley) mismatches, and he’s helping Evan a lot.”
Mobley’s scoring production includes four games of 23-plus points since Feb. 27. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year also has delivered multiple blocked shots in five of the last six contests.
Mobley’s presence both offensively and defensively — and on the boards, where he has grabbed at least 11 rebounds in three of the last four outings — takes on heightened importance with fellow Cleveland big man Jarrett Allen sidelined by a knee injury.
Allen last played in the March 3 win over Detroit. The center, who is averaging 15.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, is listed as day-to-day ahead of Thursday’s visit to Chicago.
“He’s in a good groove,” Atkinson said of Mobley helping fill Allen’s void. “He’s finishing through contact now.”
Chicago (28-41) will be playing the second half of a back-to-back on Thursday.
The Bulls fell for the 16th time in 20 games following a 139-109 thrashing at home on Wednesday against Toronto.
Chicago dropped 11 straight — they didn’t win a game in February — before recovering to alternate between wins and losses over the next six games. The Bulls closed out a five-game road swing with back-to-back losses in Los Angeles, however, falling to both the Lakers and Clippers, before a 132-107 rout of Memphis on Wednesday.
The 132 points were Chicago’s most since posting 138 in a January win over the Clippers.
Josh Giddey recorded his 12th triple-double of the season on Monday, finishing with 16 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists. It was Giddey’s fourth triple-double in five games.
Giddey’s stat line considerably was more muted on Wednesday, however. He finished with nine points, three assists and no rebounds in just 27 minutes of the blowout against Toronto.
Jalen Smith, who scored 10 points in a little more than 17 minutes played on Wednesday, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the Bulls need to show more mental toughness.
“At the end of the day we just got to want it. We’ve got to have that fight and we have to have that grit,” Smith said. “It’s basketball so every day isn’t going to be perfect, but we’ve got to figure out what else can we do to impact the game. It’s just a mental game right now for us.”
–Field Level Media
