Cavaliers blow out Clippers 122-99

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Cleveland Cavaliers returned home on Sunday night after completing a 1-2 road trip which included a 112-100 loss in Oklahoma City against the Thunder. Tonight the Cavs welcomed the Los Angeles Clippers and former Cavs coach Ty Lue to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The only meeting between the two clubs took place in L.A. at Crypto.com Arena on November 7th when the Clippers clipped the Cavs 119-117. The Cavs put any doubt to the outcome of the game very early as they blew out the Clippers 122-99.

The Cavs and Clippers have played 135 times in their history and the Cavs have the edge 76-59 winning 48 of 69 meetings in Cleveland (Cleveland Arena, Richfield Coliseum, RMFH).

The game got off to a quick start as the Cavs took an 11-4 lead with 7:50 left when Donovan Mitchell returning from a two-game absence due to a groin injury hit a three point basket forcing Lue to take an early timeout. The Cavs continued to dominate early as they extended their lead to 22-6 when Dean Wade was fouled on a dunk for the three point play with 5:07 left in the first quarter. Cleveland continued to build their lead ending the first period with a commanding 31-15 lead. Mitchell led all scorers with nine points. Amir Coffey led the Clippers with six of their 15 points in the first 12 minutes. Cleveland outrebounded L.A. 10-8 and took advantage of the Clippers two turnovers turning them into four points. The Cavs also had eight fast break points and nine points off their bench.

The Cavs took their biggest lead of the game at that point with 9:06 left in the second when Carid LeVert hit a deep three to give the Cleveland a 36-17 lead. With 7:32 left the Cavs poured it on scoring five consecutive points from Cedi Osman to increase their lead to 41-19. Things continued on the miserable side and Lue had seen enough calling a timeout with 6:41 left after LeVert hit his third three of the game pushing the Cavs lead to 46-22. The lobsided domination by the Cavs continued with 5:23 left on the clock in the first half the Cavs built the lead to 30 points at 52-22 when Garland hit two free throws after being fouled. The Cavs took a 64-34 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Cavs held the Clippers to a season low in points in a half with 34. The previous low was the Detroit Pistons when the Cleveland held them to 39 on November 4 at Detroit. The Clippers Norman Powell led all scorers with 11 in the first 24 minutes, he wasn’t getting much help as the rest of the team scored 23. Jarrett Allen led Cleveland with 10 points in the first half. The two teams tied on the boards in the first 24 minutes with 21 rebounds apiece. Cavs had three blocked shots while the Clippers could not stop the Cavs in anyway as the Cavs shot 58% (23-40) from the field in the first half and 53% (8-15) from three point range. The Clippers shot 32% (13-40) from the field and a miserable 8% (1-13) from long distance. The Clippers biggest problem was turning over the ball. They turned the ball over 11 times resulting in 16 Cavaliers points.

The Cavs extended the lead to 69-34 just 1:05 into the second half on Evan Mobley’s first three of the game. The Cavs extended their biggest lead of the season to 40 points at 82-42 when Allen hit a long range three from the top of the arch with 5:11 left on the clock. The Clippers showed some life and went on a 10-2 run cutting the Cavs lead to 84-54 with 1:51 left in the third period. The Cavs responded by scoring the next five points to reestablish a 35 point lead at 89-54 with 1:14 left on a three pointer by Cedi Osman. When the third quarter buzzer sounded the Cavs held a commanding 89-57 lead. Garland led all scorers with 16. The Cavs had four players in double figures including Garland, Allen, Mitchell, and Osman. Coffey paced the Clippers with 14. The Clippers held the rebound advantage 33-32 through three. The Clippers continued to struggle from long range as they were shooting a miserable 6% (1-17).

Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff went to the end of the bench using everyone to finish the game in the fourth quarter. Sunday night was Turkish Heritage night at RMFH and there were a lot of people in attendance from Turkey or with Turkish heritage as they were loud throughout the game and Osman who is of Turkish heritage did not disappoint as he led all scorers in the game with 29 points, 21 came in the second half much to the delight of the crowd. The Cavs and Osman secured the 122-96 win in convincing fashion over a shorthanded Clippers group who without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. The Cavs had five players in double figures including Osman, Mitchell, Allen, Garland and LeVert. With the win the Cavs improve to 31-21 on the season.

Osman spoke after the game and mentioned the disappointing game earlier in the month at RMFH against the Golden State Warriors where they were missing four starters and the Cavs lost. He basically said that the team was determined not to let that happen again tonight.

The Cavs will be in action next on Tuesday night when the Miami Heat come to RMFH at 7 pm. The Heat are currently 28-22. The only meeting between the two teams this season the Cavs pounded the Heat 113-87 at RMFH.