The Cavaliers snapped out of their two-game funk on Saturday night – dropping the Pelicans, 99-84, at The Q.
It wasn’t their most artistic win of the season – or even since Tyronn Lue took over as head coach – but it was important to get back in the win column after a pair of difficult losses on Wednesday and Friday. Kyrie Irving led the Wine and Gold with 29 points and LeBron James pitched in with 10 of his 27 points in the third quarter. On Monday, the Wine and Gold will look to keep their roll going and take some momentum into the All-Star Break when they welcome the struggling Kings to town.
After winning five straight, Sacramento has dropped seven of their last eight – including a pair this weekend to Brooklyn and Boston by the exact same score. The Cavaliers – who’ve now won 16 of their last 17 contests against Western Conference foes at The Q – split their two-game series with Sacramento last year, falling by 19 in a mid-January game without the services of LeBron James and dropping the Kings later that month to win their 11th straight.
For the second straight game, the Wine and Gold will have to contend with one of the best big men in the West. On Saturday night, they did a nice job on Anthony Davis, who put up his standard stat line – 24 points, 11 boards and a pair of blocks.
On Monday night, it’s an even bigger challenge as DeMarcus Cousins rolls in. The two-time All-Star comes into tonight’s contest as the Kings’ scoring, rebounding and blocked shots leader and ranks 4th in the league in both scoring and rebounding. So far this season, Cousins has topped the 30-point plateau on 18 occasions – including nine of Sacramento’s 12 games in January – and became the first Kings player to make the All-Star squad in back-to-back seasons since Peja Stojakovic. The mercurial center also has the NBA’s top scoring game this season – dropping 56 points on the Hornets on January 25.
With Kevin Love listed as probable for Monday night, if Tristan Thompson has to slide over to the 4, the Cavaliers will likely counter with Timofey Mozgov – who held his own against Cousins in both contests last season. If Love is able to go, that tall order falls to Tristan.
Although Rajon Rondo has given the Cavaliers some heartburn in the past – especially during the postseason – the Wine and Gold have done a solid job against the 10th year guard of late, holding him to just 4.7 ppg on 32 percent shooting over the last three meetings.
But Rondo has been excellent distributing the ball, leading the NBA in assists per game (11.8) and total assists (577 – 55 more than the next-closest competitor). Rondo has handed out 15 or more assists in 15 games this season while also leading Sacramento in steals.
He’ll be matched up with a surging Kyrie Irving, who’s returned to All-Star form over the past couple weeks – netting five 20-plus point performances in his last six games. Over his last six outings, Kyrie is averaging 24.7 points per, shooting 53 percent from the floor. In Saturday night’s win over New Orleans, Irving finished 11-of-21 from the floor to lead everyone with 29 points, adding four boards, three assists and a pair of steals.
Monday night’s matchup at the point is definitely the marquee matchup to keep an eye on.
On Monday night, two of the better outside marksmen in the league will square off.
Former Cavalier, Omri Casspi – currently ranked 10th in the NBA in three-point shooting at .422 – is having a career year for the Kings, averaging 12.3 ppg. Casspi’s already had some huge games from beyond the arc this season, including a 36-point outburst against the Warriors in late December – canning nine three-pointers on the night, including six of those bombs in the second quarter alone.
For the Wine and Gold, J.R. Smith has been very good since his arrival in Cleveland – leading the Eastern Conference in triples since last January – and he’s been just as good since the calendar turned to 2016, tallying the second-most treys (67) in the league since January 1. In Saturday’s win over New Orleans, Swish drilled six three-pointers and has connected on at least two treys in at least 10 consecutive games, including at least four triples in his last four contests.
As we approach the Break, Tyronn Lue continues to shape up his rotation and on Saturday night, that rotation extended to Anderson Varejao, who posted his best game of the season. The 12th year big man finished with 10 boards, two points, three assists, two steals and a pair of blocked shots in 28 minutes of action.
If Kevin Love is able to go, it’s unclear how that’ll affect Anderson’s minutes. Either way, the Cavaliers bench will still have to pick up the slack with Matthew Dellavedova set to miss his fourth straight game with a sore left hamstring. Mo Williams finished with seven points on Saturday and Iman Shumpert added five points and a pair of blocks in the win.
With Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore hurting, the Kings bench has been tested over the last few games. But George Karl gets most of his bench firepower from Casspi, guard Darren Collison and Kosta Koufas.
