The All-Star break seems to have helped the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are playing much better as of late. Kevin Love returning from missing over half the season due to reported toe surgery to play a large portion of recent games has worked wonders for Cleveland’s offense, and other pieces have turned it up a notch, too.
As we’ve touched on, Cleveland has benefited from playing a pretty light schedule post-break to this point, though, with the tanking Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks being opponents, for example.
The Cavaliers would win those three games, and when the Portland Trail Blazers, who’ve been one of the better teams in the Western Conference (and currently the four seed in that conference), came to town this past Monday, it was a different story in a tough loss for Cleveland.