Caris LeVert drives on the Kings' Sasha Vezenkov in Monday's loss. Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
On an early-season West Coast road trip, the Cavs are struggling to cohere on both ends of the floor.
Record: (4-6); Last week: (3-4).
Weekly slate: Loss at Oklahoma City (128-120); win at Golden State (118-110); loss at Sacramento (132-120).
The big picture: It's still early days, but the vaunted defense of last year has failed to corral speedy young opponents this year.
The latest: On Monday, the Cavs ran into a buzzsaw in Sactown.
- Despite their best long-range performance to date, the Kings outgunned them, draining 20 threes on 48% shooting from deep.
👍 Weekly winner: Caris LeVert, whose monomaniacal scoring motor kept the Cavs alive all week, and whose defense against the Warriors made the rounds on NBA Twitter.
- LeVert is a strong early-season contender for the NBA's 6th Man of the Year Award.
👎 Weekly loser: Darius Garland, who's committing almost five turnovers per game, including eight uncharacteristically sloppy giveaways in the loss to OKC.
Between the lines: After deploying five different starting lineups through the first six games, the Cavs returned to the expected lineup at full strength: Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
- Of note: Defensive specialist Isaac Okoro has been out all week with a knee injury.
🍔 Quote of the week: "Those Wendy's commercials hit a little different after 1o o'clock," play-by-play announcer John Michael said during the Sacramento broadcast, joking about the late-night games for the hometown crowd.
What's next: Tonight at Portland; Friday vs. Detroit (In-Season Tournament); Sunday vs. Denver; Tuesday at Philadelphia.
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