Cavaliers snap skid take down Portland 105-100
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been in a mini funk. The Cavs entered Tuesday having lost three straight contests, which is the first time Cleveland had lost three straight regular season games since January of last season.
Before Tuesday night’s matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers, Cavs head coach David Blatt succinctly said his team needed a win. Blatt’s team delivered as the Cavs erased an 18-point first half deficit to claim a 105-100 victory over Portland in Quicken Loans Arena.
“In the second half, I thought we really defended extremely well throughout,” Blatt said. “We competed on every play and we needed to because that’s a good team and an excellent offensive team with those two guards that they have that can make the plays and the shots that they do.”
LeBron James led Cleveland with 33 points, 10 rebounds and three assists, but it was a couple of clutch buckets by James in the fourth quarter that helped the Cavs (14-7) close the deal. Portland trailed 93-90 after Blazers point guard Damian Lillard sank a jump shot with 3:21 to play in regulation, but James immediately responded with a three-pointer that put Cleveland up 96-90 with 2:53 to play. When Lillard drained a three-pointer with 1:45 to play, James answered with a floater plus the foul and converted free throw to give the Cavs a 102-93 lead with a little more than a minute remaining. James’ three-point play virtually put the game out of reach.
“You approach every possession as your last and you just try to get a couple of timely stops, try to finish out the quarter the right way, and I think we did that in the second quarter,” James said. “It gave us a better feeling going into halftime.”
Cavs power forward Kevin Love totaled 18 points, four rebounds and four assists, but it was Matthew Dellavedova who provided several energizing plays for Cleveland in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-4 Dellavedova picked up a flagrant foul late in the fourth quarter after he threw 6-foot-11 Mason Plumlee to the ground. After the Jumbotron showed the replay, The Q erupted into familiar chants of Delly, Delly, Delly. Dellavedova finished with a season-high 17 points, three rebounds and three assists, including a big three-pointer that gave Cleveland a nine-point lead with just under two minutes to play.
“You know that that kid (Dellavedova) is gonna compete,” Blatt said.
The win against Portland pushed Cleveland’s home record to 10-1 this season, while the Cavs hold a 30-2 overall regular season record at The Q since Jan. 19 of last season. Yet, the outcome against the Blazers couldn’t have been foreseen after the way the Cavs started the game.
The Blazers jumped on the Cavs early. With the score tied 6-6 early in the first quarter, Portland used a 13-0 run to take a 19-6 lead with 4:42 remaining in the period. Lillard sparked the run, torching the Cavs for 10 points in the spurt. Cleveland trailed 25-17 when the first quarter ended and didn’t fare better until late in the second.
The Cavs trailed 50-33 after a Lillard layup with 3:08 to play in the second quarter but made their run from that point forward. Cleveland closed the first half with a 14-6 run to cut the halftime deficit below 10 points, 56-47.
“Really, I felt that what kind of gave us a chance to win that game was the fact that at the end of the second quarter we locked in,” Blatt said.
Blatt couldn’t have liked what he had seen from his team in the first half and ultimately decided to make a lineup change to begin the second half. Blatt began the second quarter with a small lineup, substituting 7-foot-1 center Timofey Mozgov for 6-foot-4 shooting guard Jared Cunningham. The rotation switch paid off.
Cleveland opened the second half with an 18-7 run, capped by Dellavedova and Richard Jefferson three-pointers to take a 65-63 lead with 4:32 to play in the third quarter. The lead was Cleveland’s first since a 4-2 advantage with a little more than 10 minutes remaining in the first quarter, and the Cavs held a 77-75 lead when the third quarter ended.
Lillard led Portland (9-14) with 33 points, six rebounds and six assists. Blazers shooting guard C.J. McCollum finished with 24 points, three rebounds and five assists against the Cavs.
Cleveland extended its dominance over Western Conference opponents with the victory. The Cavs are 17-2 in their last 19 regular season games against Western Conference opponents (3-1 this season). Cleveland has also won 10 straight games over the West at The Q, while the Cavs have won 34 consecutive games overall when scoring at least 100 points at home.
Blatt, who doesn’t seem to be one to panic, showed that assertion when discussing Cleveland’s recent three-game losing streak.
“You can lose three games and not play badly,” Blatt said. “This is a tough league and it can happen. I just don’t think we played well, for the most part, in the last three games.”
The Cavs meet the Magic in Orlando Friday.
POSTED 12/09/2015 00:39
Lake County Sentinel
