CLEVELAND, Ohio — New year. New Cavs?
Despite a few groans and murmurs, Cleveland won its first game of 2026, 113-108, over the woefully undermanned Denver Nuggets Friday night. It’s the Cavaliers’ third straight victory.
With the wounded Nuggets missing four starters — Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Christian Braun (ankle), Cameron Johnson (knee) and MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic (knee) — the Cavs entered the night favored by a whopping 13.5 points.
The game was much more competitive than that.
Seven lead changes. Five ties. Both teams ahead for about 22 minutes. A two-possession game for the duration of crunch time.
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’s lead and building its own 11-point advantage — the biggest of the night by either team.
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 — until relinquishing it quickly.
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.
But the Nuggets ran out of gas — and healthy bodies.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Cavs used a 7-0 run — a surge punctuated by a ferocious, two-handed breakaway dunk by Donovan Mitchell — to re-enliven the nervous sellout crowd and trim the Denver lead to just two.
It took until the 2:13 mark of the fourth for Cleveland to finally recapture the lead — 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.
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.
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’Andre 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).
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.
Throughout the first part of this season, the enigmatic Cavs have had some baffling — and inexplicable — losses against seemingly overmatched underdogs.
Golden State. Portland. Charlotte. Chicago.
At various points Friday night, it seemed like Denver would be added to that list.
The Cavs avoided that. It wasn’t pretty. Wasn’t 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.
Perhaps it’s a sign of things to come in 2026.
**Up next**
The Cavs will host the top-seeded Detroit Pistons on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.