Cavaliers easily topple Kings 120-100
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking for momentum heading into NBA All-Star Weekend, which begins on Friday. With a 120-100 blowout of the Sacramento Kings Monday night in Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavs won their second straight game with one left to play before the All-Star break.
“Coming in before the game, we talked about this team has a lot of talent,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said. “Rudy Gay, Rondo, Collison, Cousins, so they have a lot of talent so we just can’t take them lightly no matter what their record is.”
The Cavs (37-14) took a 61-45 lead into halftime and extended their advantage in the third quarter. When LeBron James sank a jump shot, followed by a J.R. Smith three-pointer and another James jumper with 3:12 remaining in the third, the Cavs secured a commanding 85-61 lead. Cleveland led 91-70 heading into the fourth quarter and coasted the rest of the way.
James recorded his first triple-double of the season and 40th of his career, totaling 21 points 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Kyrie Irving, who seems to be fully recovered from the fractured left knee cap he suffered in the NBA Finals last season, finished with a game-high 32 points, three rebounds and a season-high 12 assists. Irving has now scored at least 20 points in six of his last seven games.
“I think health wise he’s great,” Lue said of Irving. “I think he’s 100 percent. I still think he’s trying to get his legs back a little bit underneath him, but I thought he did a great job tonight of calling the sets.”
Since the first of the year, Smith has hit the 2nd-most three-pointers in the NBA (73). Only Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry (93) has made more threes than Smith over that stretch. Smith drained 6-of-12 three-pointers against Sacramento, and has now made at least two treys in 11 consecutive games and at least four triples in five straight contests. Smith finished with 22 points and four rebounds against the Kings.
“My biggest thing I’m impressed with J.R. is early in the season, we put him on the toughest matchups, the two and the three so ‘Bron can kind of rest and not get in foul trouble,” Lue said. “He took that personal challenge every night. His body position a lot of times is not great, but he’s giving you the effort every single night on the defensive end, and that’s what I’m more pleased with than anything.”
The Cavs connected on 16 of their 35 three-point attempts against Sacramento. Cleveland has now hit at least 10 triples on 27 occasions this season and entered the night averaging 10.0 threes per game (5th in NBA).
Cleveland has had considerable success against Western Conference opponents of late. With the victory over Sacramento, the Cavs improved to 29-6 in their last 35 regular season games against the Western Conference (15-5 this season). Cleveland has also won 17 of its last 18 regular season games over the West at The Q (9-1 this season).
With his third point of the game, Cavs power forward Kevin Love reached 9,000 for his career. Love returned from a one-game absence Monday due to a left thigh contusion and finished with 11 points, six rebounds and two assists against Sacramento.
With his second offensive rebound against the Kings, Tristan Thompson passed Brad Daugherty (1,207) for 5th place in Cavs history. Thompson entered Monday averaging 10.0 rebounds per game in his 20 starts this season. Against Sacramento, Thompson finished with two points and 10 rebounds.
In their final game before the All-Star break, the Cavs host the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night in what will be Kobe Bryant’s last game in Cleveland. Cleveland should defeat the lousy Lakers, and that happens, the Cavs will ride a three-game winning streak into the weekend.
POSTED 02/08/2016 22:27
Lake County Sentinel
