Cavaliers get past Mavericks without LeBron 99-98
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t been that good without LeBron James. Entering their matchup with the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night, the Cavs were 3-12 in the last two seasons in games that James has missed. With a slim 99-98 victory over Dallas Wednesday in Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland showed it is possible to get into the win column without James on the floor.
“I thought from what I was looking at, they really competed,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said of his team’s effort without James. “Holding a tough team like Dallas to 95 points, outside of the three that D-Will (Deron Williams) made at the end of the game, that’s a pretty big step.”
James sat out his third game this season, and the first two occurrences didn’t go well for Cleveland (48-19). James missed a meeting with the Washington Wizards on Feb. 28, in which the Wizards hammered the Cavs 113-99. Prior to that massacre, James missed a December meeting in Miami with the Heat, where the Cavs were drubbed again, 99-84. However, Wednesday’s matchup with the Mavericks (34-34) was a different story.
The Cavs had several large leads against Dallas and barely held on to their advantages throughout the contest. Cleveland led 31-28 when the first quarter ended and used a 15-0 run to start the second to take a 46-28 lead with 8:17 to play until halftime. However, Dallas took the Cavs’ punch and countered with a 23-11 spurt to trail 57-51 at intermission.
The Cavs jumped on Dallas again early in the second half. When J.R. Smith, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love connected on back-to-back-to-back three-pointers with 7:45 remaining in the third quarter, Cleveland took its largest lead of the game, 74-54. But like the Cavs built the large lead in the first half, Dallas closed the gap on the second half run.
When Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki sank a jump shot with 1:10 to play in regulation, Dallas had battled all the way back to trail 97-95. However, as Nowitzki was about to post up Irving for the game-tying attempt with less than 10 second remaining in the fourth quarter, Irving stole the ball and was fouled by the future Hall of Famer. The Cavs point guard sank two free throws to ice the game.
“We need Kevin and Kyrie definitely to score the basketball,” Lue said before the game. “With LeBron out, you lose 25 points. Everyone else has to step up and also be great offensively, but we’re going to go through Kyrie and Kevin, and they have to produce for us.”
Irving and Love did just that. Irving led Cleveland with a game-high 33 points and five rebounds. Love added 23 points and 18 rebounds, while Smith finished with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists. Channing Frye contributed 14 points and three rebounds off the Cavs bench.
With the win, Cleveland improved its record to 21-7 against the Western Conference this season, including winners of 12 of their last 14 contests against the West. Since last season, Cleveland has become accustomed to winning against Western opponents as the Cavs are 19-2 against the West at The Q since Jan. 21, 2015.
While the percentage wasn’t great, the Cavs made enough of their three-pointers to slide past Dallas. Converting 10-of-36 three-point attempts Wednesday, Cleveland has knocked down 10 or more three-pointers in seven of their last eight games. The Cavs entered the night averaging 10.3 made three-pointers per game this season, which is 5th-best in the NBA and 2nd-best in the Eastern Conference. Entering the contest with Dallas, Cleveland also had three players who ranked in the Top 20 in three-point field goal percentage: Matthew Dellavedova (43.1 percent - 6th), Frye (41.3 percent - 11th) and Smith (40 percent - 19th).
Lue knew the Cavs couldn’t produce a similar performance to their two earlier clunkers without James against Dallas Wednesday.
“We have to start playing better when LeBron doesn’t play,” Lue said just before tipoff against Dallas. “Guys have to step up and be ready to play, and take on this challenge.”
Chandler Parsons and David Lee each finished with 20 points for Dallas. Dallas shot a higher field goal percentage, a higher three-point percentage, made more free throws, had more assists and committed fewer turnovers than Cleveland. Nevertheless, the Mavs never led in the game.
The Cavs meet the Magic in Orlando on Friday.
POSTED 03/16/2016 23:41
Lake County Sentinel
