Cavs barely avoid another baffling loss, edge undermanned Nuggets, 113-108

CLEVELAND, Ohio — New year. New Cavs?

Despite a fewer groans and murmurs, Cleveland won its first crippled of 2026, 113-108, complete nan woefully undermanned Denver Nuggets Friday night. It’s nan Cavaliers’ 3rd consecutive victory.

With nan wounded Nuggets missing 4 starters — Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Christian Braun (ankle), Cameron Johnson (knee) and MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic (knee) — nan Cavs entered nan nighttime favored by a whopping 13.5 points.

The crippled was overmuch much competitory than that.

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Seven lead changes. Five ties. Both teams up for astir 22 minutes. A two-possession crippled for nan long of crunch time.

After nan Cavs took a constrictive three-point lead into nan halftime locker room, spirited Denver opened nan 3rd 4th connected 17-3 run, erasing Cleveland’s lead and building its ain 11-point advantage — nan biggest of nan nighttime by either team.

The Cavs answered pinch a 13-3 spurt, pulling wrong 1 astatine nan 5:13 people of nan 3rd quarter. They reclaimed nan lead astir 3 minutes later — until relinquishing it quickly.

By nan extremity of nan lethargic and unfocused 3rd quarter, nan Nuggets were up by nine. They outscored Cleveland 38-26 during those 12 hideous minutes.

But nan Nuggets ran retired of state — and patient bodies.

At nan commencement of nan 4th quarter, nan Cavs utilized a 7-0 tally — a surge punctuated by a ferocious, two-handed breakaway dunk by Donovan Mitchell — to re-enliven nan tense sellout crowd and trim nan Denver lead to conscionable two.

It took until nan 2:13 people of nan 4th for Cleveland to yet recapture nan lead — a clutch Darius Garland triple. About 90 seconds later, Jarrett Allen pulled down an in-traffic violative rebound that led to a Mitchell dunk, making it a two-possession game.

In all, nan Cavs outscored nan Nuggets 25-11 successful nan decisive 4th quarter, holding Denver to 4 of 20 from nan section and 1 of 12 from 3-point range.

Mitchell vanished pinch a team-high 33 points to spell pinch six rebounds and 5 assists successful 35 minutes. Garland added 18 points and 8 assists. De’Andre Hunter chipped successful pinch 16 disconnected nan bench, arsenic nan Cavs were without starting mini guardant Dean Wade (knee soreness) and reserve marksman Sam Merrill (ankle).

The Nuggets were led by Jamal Murray, nan lone remaining patient starter. He poured successful 34 points connected 12 of 28 shooting and 6 of 12 from beyond nan arc. Peyton Watson added 21 points while Tim Hardaway Jr. contributed 15 disconnected nan bench.

Throughout nan first portion of this season, nan enigmatic Cavs person had immoderate baffling — and inexplicable — losses against seemingly overmatched underdogs.

Golden State. Portland. Charlotte. Chicago.

At various points Friday night, it seemed for illustration Denver would beryllium added to that list.

The Cavs avoided that. It wasn’t pretty. Wasn’t easy. But erstwhile nan buzzer sounded, they had turned a nonaccomplishment into a W, flipped nan heckles into jubilant cheers and started nan caller twelvemonth nan correct way.

Perhaps it’s a motion of things to travel successful 2026.

Up next

The Cavs will big nan top-seeded Detroit Pistons connected Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is group for 2 p.m.

Chris Fedor has much than 20 years of acquisition successful Cleveland sports media, starting his profession successful power and making a full-time modulation to multimedia publicity astir a decade ago. While he has covered the...