After a pair of tough defeats, the Cavaliers got a much-needed win on Monday night in Phoenix, with Kyrie Irving drilling the game-deciding three-pointer with 21 seconds to play – sealing the 101-97 win over the struggling Suns.
It was easily Irving’s best game since returning to the lineup eight days earlier, but the Wine and Gold will be without their three-time All-Star on Tuesday night when they round out the rough four-games-in-five-nights road trip in the Mile High City. After shooting a combined 35 percent from the floor in their previous three contests, the Cavs snapped their shooting funk on Monday – going 46 percent from the floor, 42 percent from beyond the arc (on a season-high 41 attempts).
Even without Irving in the lineup, that’s not good news for the Nuggets, who allowed the Thunder to shoot 58 percent from the floor in a 122-112 loss on Sunday night – their fifth loss in the last six outings. With a comfortable two-game homestand when they return to Cleveland, the Cavaliers would love to get a West Coast split before heading home.
For the first time since coming back after missing the first 24 games of the season, Kyrie Irving looked like himself on Monday night – playing with explosion and confidence, dipping into his old bag of tricks at crunch time. But it’s a long season, and as the team continues to work him slowly back into game-shape, he’ll get tonight’s second-half of the back-to-back off and Matthew Dellavedova will jump back into the starting lineup.
Delly was rock-solid off the bench in Monday’s win – hitting both three-pointers he attempted and finishing with five assists – one more than anyone on the Suns squad. In December, Delly has notched double-figures in eight of Cleveland’s 12 contests and has shot better than 50 percent from long-distance – and he’s still in the top 5 in assist-to-turnover ratio.
With rookie Emmanuel Mudiay out of the lineup on Tuesday, Delly will go up against Denver’s assist leader, veteran point man Jameer Nelson.
With the Cavaliers mired in a mini-slump heading into Monday’s matchup in Phoenix, Head Coach David Blatt shook up the starting lineup – replacing Timofey Mozgov with Tristan Thompson.
The move worked out well, with Thompson leading both teams with 10 boards, four off the offensive glass, while holding the Suns’ Alex Len to five points on 1-for-5 shooting. Mozgov – who dropped a game-high 19 points on Denver in the two teams’ most recent meeting – appeared in 213 career contests with the Nuggets after being traded from New York as a rookie – averaging 6.8 points and 5.2 boards in almost five years in Denver. The Russian big man notched four points, four boards and three blocks in Monday’s win over the Suns and will look to make another strong showing against his former mates on Tuesday.
As for Tristan – who led all NBA reserves in rebounding before moving into the starting lineup – he’ll take on sophomore big man, Joffrey Lauvergne, who’s coming off an 18-point outing against the Thunder on Sunday.
In Monday night’s win, LeBron James continued his rapid rise through the NBA record books, passing Nuggets’ legend Alex English for 17th on the all-time scoring list and passing Stephon Marbury for 22nd on the all-time assist list.
James had a quiet scoring night in the Valley of the Sun – finishing with 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting (though he still managed to lead both squads with seven helpers). LeBron has struggled from the floor through the first three games of Cleveland’s four-game junket – going a combined 18-for-49, including 1-for-13 from long-distance. James tallied 22 points in each of Cleveland’s last two games against Denver last year, dishing out 11 assists in Cleveland’s victory at the Pepsi Center.
LeBron has been known to shake out of a slump with a vengeance and tonight’s trip finale would be the perfect opportunity – with Cleveland playing just two games over the next six days and on the eve of his 31st birthday.
With Danilo Gallinari out of the lineup, the unenviable job of trying to stop a potentially-surly LeBron James falls on second-year forward, Kostas Papanikolaou.
In Monday night’s win, Kevin Love jammed his right thumb midway through the third quarter but returned to action early in the fourth to finish with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, going an even 3-of-6 from beyond the arc to go with seven boards and four assists. Love maintains that he’ll be ready to go when the Cavs wrap up the roadie in Denver.
In 20 career contests against the Nuggets, Love has averaged 20.8 points and 13.1 boards per. On Monday night, he’ll have to go against one of the best rebounders in the league in Kenneth Faried, who also ranks 5th in the NBA in field goal percentage.
Faried is coming off a big game over the Thunder, notching 25 points and 11 rebounds in Sunday’s loss. As good as Faried has been against the rest of the league, the Cavaliers have always managed to keep him in-check – holding the fifth-year forward to just 7.8 points and 4.5 boards over their last four meetings. The Wine and Gold’s defense – which comes into tonight’s contest allowing the 3rd-lowest scoring average in the league at 95.3, including an NBA-best 22.1 in the fourth quarter – would love to continue that trend against Faried and Co. in the final game of the trip.
