CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers were missing two of their three leading scorers, but then again, the Nuggets were missing their two best players, it turned out.
That wasn’t the plan, but it’s how a 121-109 loss to the depleted Cavs unraveled Sunday. Already missing the hamstring-strained Jamal Murray, the Nuggets were battling uphill against Nikola Jokic’s foul trouble all night as they erased one double-digit deficit but failed to overcome another. The result was their fourth consecutive road loss and their first time losing back-to-back games since Games 3 and 4 of their second-round playoff series to Phoenix in May.