Warriors at Cavaliers
A matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers used to be must-see TV, but both franchises have recently fallen on hard times. The NBA-worst Warriors will try to snap a five-game slide on Saturday when they visit the Cavaliers, who are tied for the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
Cleveland and Golden State met in the NBA Finals in four consecutive seasons between 2015 and 2018 but the Cavaliers tailed off when LeBron James left following a loss to the Warriors in the 2018 Finals and injuries have ruined the 2019-20 season for Golden State. The Warriors began the five-game road trip with losses at Philadelphia and Boston to fall to 3-22 on the road despite solid performances from point guard D'Angelo Russell. The Cavaliers dropped nine of their last 10 games but played the defending champion Toronto Raptors tough in a 115-109 setback on Thursday. "It's something we can build on, but it is also very disappointing that we lost," Cleveland coach John Beilein told reporters. "We don't go out there trying to lose, we want to win every game when we step on that court in between those lines. It just shows our growth, because last time we played them they beat us a little bit. We played them down to the wire and it was really good tonight."
TIME: 8 p.m. ET. TV: NBCS Bay Area, FS Ohio
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (10-39): Golden State is trying to find the win column and tried to find the positives in its performance on Thursday, in which it shot 42.9 percent from the floor and fell 119-104 at Boston. "We'll go into the next game with a lot of confidence and just try to clean up some mistakes," small forward Glenn Robinson III told reporters. "I think we are close to kind of breaking through." Robinson is one of several young players getting a chance to take on a bigger role than ever before and he is responding by averaging 12.5 points on 47.2 percent shooting.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (13-36): Cleveland is giving its young players plenty of space in which to grow and is dealing with the mistakes as they come. Rookie shooting guard Kevin Porter Jr. scored 13 points in 29 minutes off the bench on Thursday but also committed a season-high seven turnovers in the loss. "I had a lot of turnovers," Porter told reporters. "I usually do better taking care of the ball. I don't recall ever having seven turnovers in a game before. It was definitely different for me, but it was a learning experience. I've got my guys here to talk it over with and we're going to go out and next one, I'm not going to have seven. I start with zero next game and we're going to go out there and try to get a win."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Warriors PF Kevon Looney (abdominal) made the trip and is practicing with the team but sat out his 18th consecutive game on Thursday and remains day-to-day.
2. Cavaliers PF Kevin Love went 6-of-9 from 3-point range on Thursday and is 18-of-35 over the last four contests.
3. Golden State won the last nine in the series, going back to the final game of the 2017 Finals and including a sweep in the 2018 Finals.