Cavaliers swat down Hornets 100-93
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
Who needs Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love?
Neither Cavaliers star played a minute of the fourth quarter in Cleveland’s 100-93 victory over the Charlotte Hornets Sunday afternoon, a circumstance that left more than a few people scratching their heads.
Were they injured? Nope. Both players played in the game. Were they playing poorly? Nope. Irving finished the afternoon with 19 points in 26 minutes, while Love totaled 17 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes. So, what gives? Why didn’t they see a second of action in the fourth quarter against Charlotte?
“When the bench guys came in, we were down 72-71, and they built the lead up for us and they were playing great,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said on why he stuck with a lineup consisting of LeBron James and four bench players for the entire fourth quarter. “Kyrie and Kevin, they were both great.
“They were both great on the sideline, cheering and applauding. They saw the flow of the game that we had, and Shump has just been great for us off the bench, (his) last four or five games have been unbelievable…It was nothing personal, but Kevin and Kyrie, they said ‘let them roll.’ They understood it and we got the win.”
That 72-71 Hornets’ lead Lue referred to was the score at the end of three quarters. Cleveland tied the game at 74 with an Iman Shumpert three-pointer less than a minute into the fourth quarter and took the lead, 77-74, with a Channing Frye three-pointer roughy 30 seconds later.
Frye had his best game of the season, scoring a season-high 20 points and sinking several big buckets down the stretch. When Frye sank his fifth three-pointer of the evening with 5:43 to play, the Cavs took an 89-80 lead. When he splashed his sixth and final triple of the afternoon with 3:18 remaining, Cleveland secured a 94-85 lead and never looked back.
“He (Frye) makes us better because he’s 7-foot, he can guard centers,” Lue said. “And then, centers have to guard him. Centers aren’t going to get out and show, they’re not going to be able to rotate to him.”
The Hornets (6-3) did shave Cleveland’s lead to a four-point deficit with just under two minutes to play, but Cavs shooting guard Jordan McRae immediately sank a floater and James sank a three-pointer to put Cleveland up 99-90 with less than a minute remaining. Despite the Hornets challenging late, Lue decided to stick with the lineup of James, Frye, McRae, Shumpert and Richard Jefferson.
“I was determined to let them finish,” Lue said. “I didn’t think it would be fair to the starters, being out for so long and then say come back and save us — It wasn’t fair to those guys. We had a good team out there, a good unit, and LeBron is going to make sure those guys get shots and they knocked down shots.
“I just didn’t think it was fair to bring Kyrie and Kevin back late when they cut it to four and say bail us out.”
James and Frye totaled 22 of the Cavs’ 29 points in the fourth quarter. Overall, James finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Shumpert finished with 15 points, three rebounds and two assists. He played more than 30 minutes, largely because Cleveland was without J.R. Smith, who tweaked his ankle in the Cavs’ victory over Washington on Friday.
With the win over Charlotte, Cleveland moved to 8-1 this season, the same record they started last season with. We all know how last season turned out for the Cavs.
“Right now, we’re in a good place,” Lue said. “We’re playing good basketball. We can always play better. We’re just trying to figure out different rotations; it’s gonna be ongoing until the end of the season, just trying to find the right mixtures and right combinations. Right now the guys are in a good place.”
POSTED 11/13/2016 20:49
Lake County Sentinel
