Update: Cavaliers’ play-by-play voice Fred McLeod (@CavsFredMcLeod) Tweets that LeBron James will not play in Miami tonight.
“No LBJ tonight thinking long term with tough back to back”
“David says this is his call LBJ wanted to go, but wound up a little sore after tough OT game”
LeBron played a few ticks shy of 46 minutes Friday night in the overtime loss to New Orleans, where he was busy tying a season-high 37-point output.
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League Report:
LeBron James will not play in Cleveland’s game at Miami.
Cavaliers coach David Blatt says he made the decision in part because James logged 45 minutes in Cleveland’s overtime loss at New Orleans on Friday night. The Cavaliers landed in Miami shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday, and didn’t arrive at their hotel for about another hour.
It’s the first game James will miss this season, and would have been his third game in Miami since he left the Heat to return to the Cavaliers after the 2014 NBA Finals.
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For the second time this season, the Cavaliers have dropped two straight games – their first home loss on Tuesday night against Washington and Friday’s overtime defeat in the Big Easy. With that loss to the Pelicans, the Cavs have now dropped four of their last five road contests – not good news considering that they’ve dropped 10 straight on South Beach.
The Heat have been almost as good as the Wine and Gold on their home hardwood this year, improving to 9-3 after dropping the Thunder on Thursday night. The Cavaliers, 5-5 over their last 10 games, have already topped Miami this year – a 102-92 victory in the home opener. In that game, LeBron James notched 29 points while Kevin Love doubled-up with 24 points and 14 boards.
If the Wine and Gold are to snap out of their mini-funk, a win against their rivals from South Beach would be an excellent start.
While the Cavaliers await the return of Kyrie Irving as their starting point guard, Head Coach David Blatt has tinkered with the position over the first 19 games.
In last night’s loss in New Orleans, Matthew Dellavedova got his fourth start of the season. (Mo Williams has started 14 contests and even Jared Cunningham has been in the starting five on two occasions.) Coming in as the NBA’s assist-to-turnover ratio leader, Delly was quiet offensively on Friday – except for his three-pointer in the fourth quarter that cut the Pelicans’ 13-point lead to just four.
On Saturday night, Delly draws another tough assignment in Miami’s Goran Dragic. So far this season, Dragic’s numbers have been down – his scoring average has been halved from his breakout season two years ago in Phoenix, but he’s still dangerous as a scorer and playmaker.
Delly and Mo will have to be on their game if the Cavaliers are to snap Miami’s spell on South Beach.
After three sub-superstar quarters in New Orleans, LeBron James went nuclear in the fourth – netting 23 of his 37 points in the period, personally outscoring the Pelicans in the process.
No player in the league has scored more fourth-quarter points than James and his 8.6 point average in the final period is second only to last night’s adversary, Anthony Davis, who averages 8.8 points in the fourth.
Though LeBron’s Cavaliers fell twice to the Heat in Miami last season, he was rock-solid against his former mates – averaging 28.0 points (but only 3.0 assists) in those two defeats. James – who passed Austin Carr for 5th place on the Cavaliers’ all-time games-played list with No. 636 – has averaged 27.0 points on 47 percent shooting on the road this season.
If Luol Deng is able to return from a sore hamstring that’s kept him out the previous four games, he’ll draw the assignment on James. If not, the Heat will likely go with a mix of Gerald Green, Josh McRoberts and impressive rookie, Justise Winslow.
One of the most interesting matchups on Saturday night pits multiple-time All-Stars, Kevin Love and Chris Bosh, against one another.
Bosh has returned to form after being forced to sit the second half of last season due to a blood clot in his lungs. In 17 starts this year, he’s averaging 17.6 points per, piling up eight double-doubles in the process. He dropped 16 points on the Wine and Gold in Miami’s earlier loss at The Q and has had some monster games against Cleveland over the years.
But he’ll be busy on both ends keeping up with Kevin Love, who’s off to an excellent start to the season in his own right. On Friday night in New Orleans, the three-time All-Star notched his 11th double-double of the season – second in the Eastern Conference behind only Detroit’s Andre Drummond – with 15 points and 10 boards. Aside from Tuesday’s loss at The Q, Love has been the model of consistency for Cleveland all season, notching double-digits in every game but two. He struggled against Miami last season, averaging 13.5 points and 5.5 boards in two outings.
But Love has been a different player in 2015-16, and he’ll get another chance to prove that on Saturday night.
If Delly gets his second straight start for Cleveland, that gives David Blatt the option of some scoring punch off the bench in Mo Williams – who finished with eight points in Friday’s loss. Until Irving and Iman Shumpert return, the Cavs will need all the contributions they can get off the bench.
Richard Jefferson and James Jones provide a solid veteran presence on both ends and Tristan Thompson has been a beast on the boards all year – notching his eighth straight game of double-digit rebounds on Friday in New Orleans. Anderson Varejao, who started the first 23 games of last season, is still trying to find his rhythm this year.
For Miami, if Deng is able to return, they’ll also bring some firepower off the bench – with Green moving back to the bench, and Winslow and McRoberts doing much of the heavy lifting in reserve.
After going into an extra-session in a 9:30 p.m. game on Friday and arriving in Miami at 5 a.m. for the second-half of a back-to-back, the Wine and Gold will need to lean on their bench to snap their two-game skein.
