Slow starts have become a theme for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Through six games this season, the Cavs have had to erase early deficits in several contests — And Friday night’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers was no different.
“That’s a fact — We started slow the last two games,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said. “The sample size is small, but we did mention it.”
Despite another slow start against Philadelphia Friday, the Cavs (5-1) pulled away to pick up a 108-102 victory in Quicken Loans Arena. The win was the Cavs’ fifth straight after a season-opening loss in Chicago against the Bulls.
“Obviously, we did not have our best defensive game tonight,” Blatt said.
After two quarters, Cleveland trailed the winless Sixers (0-5) 50-49. The Cavs’ usually stingy defense allowed Philadelphia to shoot 55 percent from the field in the first half, but it was just a matter of time before both teams realized who they were.
Cleveland opened the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 56-50 lead but didn’t stop adding to its advantage. When Mo Williams splashed a jumper followed by a LeBron James three-pointer with 4:28 remaining in the third quarter, Cleveland stretched its lead to 17 points (77-60). While the Cavs attempted to pull away from the scrappy Sixers, Philadelphia wouldn’t go down without a battle.
The Sixers cut the Cavs lead to an 81-73 margin when the third quarter ended, and when 76ers rookie center Jahlil Okafor sank a hook shot with 10:17 to play in the fourth, Philadelphia had crawled back to trail 84-79. The Sixers’ energy, however, wasn’t enough as the Cavs immediately put together a 15-5 run to take a 99-84 lead and put the game away with 4:52 to play.
James led Cleveland with a team-high 31 points, four rebounds and 13 assists in 36 minutes. Williams finished with 16 points and eight assists, while Kevin Love added 12 points and 14 rebounds.
It wasn’t all smiles and laughs for those in The Q Friday. In a scary moment with 9:18 to play in the fourth quarter, James fell awkwardly to the floor after attempting a layup in traffic. After lying on the floor for a few moments, James made it to his feet and hopped on one leg, favoring the other while every soul in the arena held their breath. James eventually hobbled to the bench clutching his thigh, but he was able to stay in the game, a relief for all onlookers including his coach.
“He took a knee to the thigh,” Blatt said after the game. “Many of you know, that’s a painful thing. We let him go with it so he wouldn’t stiffen up and the moment we took him out, we didn’t want to put him back in unless we absolutely had to.
“Fortunately, we didn’t have to. Obviously he had a fantastic second half.”
James, who scored 18 of his 31 points in the third quarter to give the Cavs their hefty lead, added another milestone to his already lengthy list of accomplishments. With his third bucket against Philadelphia, James reached 9,000 field goals in his regular season career, becoming just the 20th player in league history to reach that mark. Only five active players have hit the 9,000 field goal plateau (Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki), putting James in the elite of the elite’s company.
Sixers big men Nerlens Noel and Okafor each scored 18 points, while Isaiah Canaan finished with 14 points and four assists for Philadelphia. In the end, the youthful Sixers didn’t have enough to halt the Cavs’ dominance on their home court.
Since Jan. 19 of last season, the Cavs are 23-1 in the regular season at The Q, outscoring opponents by nearly 13 points per game over that stretch. Yet, it’s the slow starts to games Cleveland would like to clean up.
“I didn’t think that we got the same performance out of our bench that we normally do tonight,” Blatt said. “We didn’t finish any quarter well this evening. I thought that we were careless with the basketball at the end of every quarter.”
The Cavs look to tighten up their play against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
POSTED 11/06/2015 23:10
Lake County Sentinel
Cavaliers win fifth straight taking down the Sixers 108-102
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
