CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 New year. New Cavs? <\/p>\n
Despite a few groans and murmurs, Cleveland won its first game of 2026, 113-108, over the woefully undermanned Denver Nuggets Friday night. It\u2019s the Cavaliers\u2019 third straight victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could argue we stole that one a little bit,\u201d Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said following the victory. \u201cI thought they outplayed us. So, we stole it, but that also shows we have our mettle and our resiliency. Three weeks ago, do we win that game? Probably not. I think we\u2019re in a better place, like spiritually and as a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust find a way to get a win. Definitely not going to go in the Hall of Fame, the Cavs Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the wounded Nuggets missing four starters \u2014 Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Christian Braun (ankle), Cameron Johnson (knee) and MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic (knee) \u2014 the Cavs entered the night favored by a whopping 13.5 points. <\/p>\n
The game was much more competitive than that. <\/p>\n
Seven lead changes. Five ties. Both teams ahead for about 22 minutes. A two-possession game for the duration of crunch time. <\/p>\n
After the Cavs took a narrow three-point lead into the halftime locker room, spirited Denver opened the third quarter on 17-3 run, erasing Cleveland\u2019s lead and building its own 11-point advantage \u2014 the biggest of the night by either team. <\/p>\n
The Cavs answered with a 13-3 spurt, pulling within one at the 5:13 mark of the third quarter. They reclaimed the lead about three minutes later \u2014 until relinquishing it quickly.<\/p>\n
By the end of the lethargic and unfocused third quarter, the Nuggets were up by nine. They outscored Cleveland 38-26 during those 12 hideous minutes. <\/p>\n
But the Nuggets ran out of gas \u2014 and healthy bodies. <\/p>\n
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Cavs used a 7-0 run \u2014 a surge punctuated by a ferocious, two-handed breakaway dunk by Donovan Mitchell \u2014 to re-enliven the nervous sellout crowd and trim the Denver lead to just two. <\/p>\n
It took until the 2:13 mark of the fourth for Cleveland to finally recapture the lead \u2014 a clutch Darius Garland triple. About 90 seconds later, Jarrett Allen pulled down an in-traffic offensive rebound that led to a Mitchell dunk, making it a two-possession game. <\/p>\n
In all, the Cavs outscored the Nuggets 25-11 in the decisive fourth quarter, holding Denver to 4 of 20 from the field and 1 of 12 from 3-point range. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like the first three quarters we were on our heels,\u201d Atkinson explained. \u201cWe just decided to blitz every single Jamal Murray pick and roll. Said, \u2018If we\u2019re going to lose this, let the other guys beat us.\u2019 We double-teamed him, tried to get the ball out of his hands. And it turned out right for us. We had the right guys shooting on the other team at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell finished with a team-high 33 points to go with six rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes. Garland added 18 points and eight assists. De\u2019Andre Hunter chipped in with 16 off the bench, as the Cavs were without starting small forward Dean Wade (knee soreness) and reserve marksman Sam Merrill (ankle). <\/p>\n
The Nuggets were led by Jamal Murray, the lone remaining healthy starter. He poured in 34 points on 12 of 28 shooting and 6 of 12 from beyond the arc. Peyton Watson added 21 points while Tim Hardaway Jr. contributed 15 off the bench. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur offense was just really bad,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cJust gotta call it what it is. Stagnant. Iso. Not moving it. Looked clunky. I think their zone messed with us, and messed with our pace. We don\u2019t have to hold it and take 10 dribbles and jack a three. Then just generally, like, we\u2019ve gotta be stronger with the ball at the rim. We\u2019ve got an advantage inside. If we\u2019re gonna throw it to these guys, they gotta do more with it. Frustrated with our offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the first part of this season, the enigmatic Cavs have had some baffling \u2014 and inexplicable \u2014 losses against seemingly overmatched underdogs. <\/p>\n
Golden State. Portland. Charlotte. Chicago. <\/p>\n
At various points Friday night, it seemed like Denver would be added to that infamous list. <\/p>\n
The Cavs avoided that \u2014 barely. It wasn\u2019t pretty. Wasn\u2019t easy. But when the buzzer sounded, they had turned a loss into a W, flipped the heckles into jubilant cheers and started the new year the right way.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s a sign of things to come in 2026. <\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Cavs will host the top-seeded Detroit Pistons on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 New year. New Cavs? Despite a few groans and murmurs, Cleveland won its first game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-389226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}