Cavaliers fade late in loss to Spurs 110-94
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
After experiencing two of their worst losses of the season to begin February, the Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to be getting back to playing winning basketball. That changed Sunday afternoon.
The Cavs entered Sunday’s meeting with the San Antonio Spurs as winners of five of their last six games, averaging nearly 120 points per game over that stretch. Meanwhile, the Spurs entered Sunday having lost six of their last seven games. Despite the two teams seemingly heading in opposite directions, the Spurs pulled away from Cleveland in the fourth quarter to take a 110-94 victory back to San Antonio.
“We just had a rough night shooting the basketball,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said after his team shot 8-for-34 from three-point range against the Spurs. “It’s going to happen. I thought defensively, we were pretty good.”
Sunday’s contest was close through three quarters, as the Cavs trailed 76-74 heading into the fourth. As soon as the final period started, however, the Spurs put their boot to the floor. San Antonio opened the fourth quarter with a furious 11-0 run that included six straight Dejounte Murray points, helping the Spurs secure an 87-74 lead with 9:22 to play. The Cavs never recovered from the San Antonio spurt, as the closest they came from that point forward was an eight-point deficit.
“We have to measure (our play) against ourselves, just continue to get better each and every night,” Lue said. “No matter the opponent or who we’re playing, we have to continue to keep getting better offensively and defensively, and just hit our stride when April comes. I know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but guys are putting in the work and we’re going to continue getting better throughout the season.”
LeBron James, who entered Sunday averaging a triple-double in February, led Cleveland with 33 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. His eighth assist versus San Antonio allowed him to pass Rod Strickland (7,987 AST) for 11th place on the NBA’s all-time assists list. To his credit, James already has the most assists by any frontcourt player in league history.
Lacking for the Cavs on Sunday was production from the other starters aside James. Cedi Osman, Tristan Thompson, George Hill and J.R. Smith combined to score 14 points on 6-of-28 from the field. Jordan Clarkson totaled 17 points off the Cavs bench, while Jeff Green chipped-in 14 points in a reserve role.
Meanwhile, all five Spurs starters reached double-figures in scoring, led by LaMarcus Aldridge’s 27 points. Former Cavalier Danny Green scored 22 points off the San Antonio bench.
“It’s still going to be a process,” Lue said. “We still have new guys that we’re trying to implement, trying to pick up the plays and pick up what we want to do defensively.”
Sunday’s contest was the Cavs’ first game of their longest homestand of the season, a five-game stand in a nine-day stretch. Cleveland will host the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday at The Q..
POSTED 02/25/2018 19:04
Lake County Sentinel
