Wrap-Up — On Friday night, the Cavaliers played like they had something to prove.
Kevin Love was recently snubbed from the Eastern Conference All-Star squad – despite averaging a double-double for the Conference’s top squad. Kyrie Irving had struggled to find his offense of late, and Coach Lue challenged him to return to his aggressive self. And LeBron James was showered with boos in an arena packed with fans that just don’t like him.
They took it out on the Pistons for four quarters, allowing Detroit to take a 2-0 lead and slamming the door from there – running away with their third straight win and setting themselves up for a monster matchup with the Spurs on Saturday night at The Q.
For the first time all season, Cleveland’s Big Three all hit the 20-point mark – with Love leading the way, netting 19 of his 29 points before intermission, going 9-of-19 from the floor on the night, including 5-of-7 from three-point range.
Kyrie was in attack mode from the opening tip, shaking off a rough shooting week to go 11-for-19 from the floor for 28 points, adding four boards and a pair of assists.
LeBron did a little bit of everything in the win – finishing with 20 points, nine boards and a game-high eight assists.
The four-time MVP went 7-for-16 from the floor on Friday, with one of those misses coming on a failed dunk attempt, which was the highlight of the evening for the fans at the Palace who saw their squad fall behind by six after one quarter, eight at intermission and 18 heading into the final period.
The Pistons’ All-Star representative, Andre Drummond, who’s having a record-setting season was held completely in check by the Wine and Gold’s big man tandem of Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov.
Drummond, the league’s leading rebounder, snagged only seven boards to go with 20 points. The Cavaliers never needed to the strategy of intentionally fouling the dominant center -with Tristan and Timo taking care of him without it. Thompson notched his 12th double-double of the season with 11 points and 14 boards; Timo came off Cleveland’s bench to tally 12 points and eight boards. The duo finished a combined 8-of-11 from the floor.
The Cavaliers’ new up-tempo offense has taken hold four games into their new head coach’s tenure. After last Saturday’s utterly forgettable loss to the Bulls in Lue’s debut last Saturday, the Wine and Gold have averaged 114.3 points per contest during their three-game run.
Cleveland shot 47 percent from the floor and 93 percent from the stripe on Friday night, canning 27 of 29 free throws. Despite picking up the pace, the Cavs committed just eight miscues.
Turning Point — The Cavaliers were in control through the first two quarters – with Love and Kyrie doing most of the damage – but couldn’t quite pull away from an improved Pistons team that topped them in their first meeting in Motown.
But LeBron James canned a pair of jumpers and J.R. Smith drilled his first triple of the night to start the third quarter on a 7-0 run that gave Cleveland a 15-point lead. The Pistons answered with a 7-0 run of their own, but Love put a stop that with a long three-pointer. Love hit his fifth bomb of the night at the midway point of the period and Swish hit his second a little over minute later to give put the Cavs up 19.
Tyronn Lue’s squad would extend their lead to 20 towards the end of the period and were able to hold off Detroit and coast to the finish line in the final period.
By the Numbers – 26,005 … career points that LeBron James has tallied over the course of his future Hall of Fame career, becoming just the 17th player in NBA history and sixth current player – joining Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce and Tim Duncan – in accomplishing that feat.
Quotable – Kyrie Irving, on Coach Lue’s directive for him to be more aggressive …
“We had a sit down talk when (Tyronn Lue) became head coach. He told me what he expected of me and that he was going to emphasize it before every game. Part of our success as a team is me pushing the pace and be aggressive in transition to get better shots. So the pace that we’re trying to play at we want to continue to play at, it’s important for me to do that. I take it with a lot of respect and I take it as a personal challenge to go out there and execute.”
Up Next – The Cavaliers come home for the second-half of their weekend back-to-back and it promises to be a knock-down, drag-out nationally-televised affair against the heavyweight Spurs, who held off the Wine and Gold just over two weeks ago in San Antonio. Following Saturday’s marquee matchup, the Cavs hit the road for the final time before the All-Star Break – taking on the Pacers in Indiana on Monday night and taking on the Hornets on Wednesday night on Tobacco Road. They return home for another weekend back-to-back – welcoming Boston to The Q on Friday night and Anthony Davis and the Pelicans to town the following evening.
