The Cavaliers and Wizards wrap up their season series with two games in a five-day span – facing Washington on Sunday in D.C. and again on Friday night at The Q.
The Wine and Gold are coming off a difficult loss two nights earlier in Toronto, relinquishing a late nine-point lead and surrendering a career-high 43 points to Kyle Lowry as the Raptors handed the Cavs a 99-97 loss and moved to within two games of them in the Eastern Conference standings.
On Sunday afternoon, the Cavs try to make it two straight against the Wizards – who they dropped back on January 6 to begin a six-game, 10-day road trip, with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving combining for 66 of Cleveland’s 121 points in the victory.
The Wine and Gold will look to get back on track after dropping two of their last three games; the Wizards will look to keep their mini-roll going – having gone 5-2 (3-0 at home) since the All-Star Break.
After watching Kyle Lowry dissect their defense on Friday night, the Cavaliers could use a break at the point guard position.
His counterpart on Sunday, Kyrie Irving, has had an interesting – albeit uneven – week heading into the marquee matchup with Wall. Irving notched a game-high 30 points in a loss against Detroit and 23 more in a home win over Charlotte. On opposite ends of those games, Kyrie played only nine minutes in the now-infamous “bed bugs” outing in OKC and, on Friday night, finished with just 10 points, one board and one assist while going 4-for-11 from the floor against Toronto.
In his last meeting with Washington, Irving notched 19 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter – his best game of the season after missing the first 24 contests. The Cavs will need that version of Irving if they hope to make it two straight against the Wizards.
The Cavaliers handled Jonas Valanciuanas on Friday night in Toronto, but they’ll have another international big man to deal with on Sunday afternoon, facing off against Marcin Gortat.
So far this season, the Polish Hammer has piled up 31 double-doubles while acting as the Wizards third-leading scorer and leading rebounder. Over the last nine games, Gortat is averaging 14.6 points and 10.6 boards per contest – shooting 60 percent from the floor and doubling-up in seven of those games. In two games against Cleveland this season, the eight-year veteran is shooting 68 percent from the floor – tallying 15 points and 11 boards in Washington’s early-season win over the Wine and Gold – snapping the Cavaliers’ nine-game home win streak.
He’ll match up with the NBA’s iron man, Tristan Thompson, who will suit up for his 346th straight game on Sunday. Back in his hometown on Friday night, Thompson led Cleveland with 10 boards – the eighth time in his last nine games that he’s grabbed double-digit boards (and 34th time he’s done so this season).
Thompson did well limiting Valanciunas in the previous game; he’ll have to be as good or better on Sunday afternoon in D.C.
The Wizards clamped down on Cleveland in their first meeting of the season, holding the Wine and Gold to 85 points on just 34 percent shooting while forcing 19 turnovers. But the Cavaliers got their offense back on track in their last visit to the nation’s capital – shooting 54 percent from the floor and canning a dozen triples (five by J.R. Smith) in the victory.
The Cavs were an even 12-of-24 from beyond the arc on Friday night, their 31st game this season of double-digit triples. This year, Cleveland averages 10.1 threes per game – good for 5th in the NBA. Leading the charge is J.R. Smith, whose 88 treys are second in the league – trailing only Steph Curry – since January 1.
The Wizards aren’t shy about shooting from long-distance, and they have weapons to get the job done. Jared Dudley leads the Eastern Conference at 46 percent and reserve guard Gary Neal shoots a solid 41 percent from deep.
Collectively, the Cavaliers and Wizards rank third and fourth in the East from long-distance – and Sunday’s matchup in D.C. could be another shootout like the previous contest here at the Verizon Center.
The Cavaliers get nearly 74 percent of their scoring from their starters, but they still rely heavily on their second unit – especially on the defensive end, with Iman Shumpert (in his first game back from a sprained left shoulder) and Matthew Dellavedova functioning as two of their top perimeter defenders.
The Wine and Gold didn’t get much offensively from their bench on Friday night – being outscored, 37-23, by Toronto’s second unit. Channing Frye couldn’t recapture the magic from his previous outing against Charlotte and Timofey Mozgov grabbed just two boards and saw the Raptors’ Bismack Biyombo go a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor.
They’ll have to be better than that on Sunday going against a Wizards team that not only brings Bradley Beal off the bench, but can also come with the recently-acquired Markieff Morris – who killed Cleveland last year in Phoenix. Former Cavalier, Ramon Sessions, has also been very good of late – averaging 12.7 points on 55 percent shooting over his last three games.
As good as both teams’ starters can be, Sunday’s tilt might just be decided by the squads’ second units.
