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"Best" and "Worst" awards: Sixers vs. Cavs

    by Keith Pompey, The Philadelphia Inquirer
    Published 

CLEVELAND –  This is my look at some of the best and worst performances from the Cleveland Cavaliers' 87-86 victory over the 76ers Sunday evening at Quicken Loans Arena:

Best performance: How could I not give this to LeBron James? The Cavs all-star forward finished with a game-high 20 points to go with team highs of 11 rebounds and six assists.  The four-time league MVP did have five turnovers in an ugly game. But no one can hold that against him considering this was an awful game to watch.

Worst performance:  I had to give this award to Jerami Grant. The Sixers rookie got the start at small forward to guard James. He did an okay job defensively with things considered. However, he struggled on the offensive end.  He  missed all four of his shot attempts en route to finishing with two points. Grant also missed two clutch foul shots in the fourth quarter that would have given the Sixers the lead.

Best defensive performance:  Luc Mbah a Moute gets this award. The Sixers power forward  didn't start as usually does. However, he made a difference on the defensive end, finishing with a game-high three steals. His defensive presence made it hard for the Cavs to get comfortable and get off good shots.

Best performance in a losing effort: This was a tough one, because Furkan Aldemir, Robert Covington and Ish Smith were  all worthy. After a lot of thought, I opted to give it to Aldemir. The rookie from Turkey  finished with a career-high 11 points to go with 10 rebounds while getting the start at center. This was his first double-double. Furkan sat out the fourth quarter.

Worst statistic: You have to give this to the Sixers' fourth-quarter shooting. They made just 5 of 18  shots (27.8 percent) in the quarter.

Best statistic: This award goes to the Cavs' rebounding. Cleveland held a 53-45 rebounding advantage.

Worst of the Worst:  This goes to the final 3 minutes, 56 seconds of the game. Cleveland went scoreless after Timofey Mozgov scored on a put-back to give it an 87-83 cushion with 4:04 remaining. Robert Covington responded to win a three-pointer to close the game to one point seven seconds later.

From there, the Cavs went on the miss their final six shots. The Sixers, meanwhile, missed their four foul shots and five field goals.

Follow and contact Inquirer 76ers beat writer Keith Pompey on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers and on instagram at PompeyOnSixers