The Wine and Gold look to sweep their second Western Conference foe in a week when they welcome the Phoenix Suns to The Q on Wednesday night.
The shorthanded Suns come to Cleveland without their two top scorers – Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight – and have dropped 18 of their last 21 games, including a 10-point loss to the Sixers on Tuesday night, thus being swept by the league’s lowliest squad.
The Cavaliers, who topped Phoenix by four in the Valley of the Sun late last month, got Tyronn Lue his first career coaching victory on Monday night — sweeping a stubborn Timberwolves team with the 114-107 win. The Cavaliers new up-tempo offense was effective, but it’ll still take some getting used to for the Wine and Gold – who twice built up double-digit leads late in the game before watching the Wolves cut it to three. In his fifth game back from injury, Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers in their December 28 win over the Suns – finishing with 22 points as Cleveland snapped a two-game slide.
It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned LeBron James making another entry in the NBA’s history books, but he has a chance to do so once again on Wednesday night – needing 36 points to become the 17th player in league history (and sixth active player) to top the 26,000-point plateau.
The four-time MVP would have to have a monster night – (which is not totally unthinkable) – to also move up into the league’s all-time top 20 in assists, needing 13 helpers to pass Derek Harper. LeBron is coming off his most efficient shooting night of the season on Monday night, going 11-for-13 from the floor to lead Cleveland with 25 points and nine assists.
Phoenix will counter with a player who doesn’t put up anywhere near the numbers that LeBron does, but is one of the Association’s few players who can match up with him physically in P.J. Tucker. The fifth-year forward from Texas held the 12-time All-Star to just 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting in their last meeting. As bad as the Suns have been, Tucker will definitely give the King all he can handle on Wednesday night.
With Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Ronnie Price all out for tonight’s matchup in Cleveland, the Suns are forced to start a pair of 2-guards in their backcourt – rookie Devin Booker and fellow former Wildcat, Archie Goodwin.
Both have played well as of late, especially Goodwin, who’s scored at least 20 points in each of his last three outings – including Saturday night’s win over Atlanta when notched a season-high 24 and canned the game-winning three-pointer with .01 remaining. With Jeff Hornacek searching for backcourt answers, it’s likely Goodwin who will draw Kyrie Irving on Wednesday night.
Cleveland’s three-time All-Star has been up and down over the past week-and-a-half, but he was solid in Monday’s victory over the Wolves – finishing with 17 points and a season-high nine boards. Kyrie had his breakout game in the December 28th meeting in Phoenix, drilling the deep game-deciding triple with 21 seconds to play and icing the game with a pair of free throws eight seconds later.
Coach Lue was good on his word to rotate starting centers depending on the matchup and situation.
After struggling off the bench on Saturday night against Chicago, Tristan Thompson got the starting nod against Minnesota on Monday and came up big – finishing with 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting to go with 12 boards as the Wine and Gold improved to 11-2 this season with him in the opening lineup. Thompson was quiet offensively in Cleveland’s Dec. 28 victory against the Suns, going just 2-of-3 from the field. But he led both teams with 10 rebounds while holding Alex Len to 1-for-5 shooting to go with just five boards.
It’s hard to know how Lue will match up with the Suns tonight at The Q – as they’ve begun starting a pair of seven-footers – Len and Tyson Chandler. Len has scored in double-figures in three straight games, doubling up in Saturday night’s win in Atlanta. Chandler was even better against the Hawks, finishing with 13 points and tying a Suns’ franchise record with 27 rebounds, his second straight game with over 20 boards.
Whoever Lue decides to start on Wednesday, they’ll have their hands full with Phoenix’s extra-large frontline.
In the first meeting with the Suns in late December, reserve forward T.J. Warren looked like the second-coming of Walter Davis against the Cavaliers – going 9-for-15 from the floor, including 4-of-5 from long-distance for a game-high 23 points off Jeff Hornacek’s bench.
In that contest, Markieff Morris was still serving a two-game suspension for throwing a towel in his head coach’s face. Since then, he’s tallied only three starts (as opposed to six DNP-CD’s) over that span. Morris, who still hasn’t regained his starting role, has had some huge games against the Cavaliers – going off for 27 points and 15 boards against Cleveland two years ago and dropping 35 points in the Cavs’ lone visit to Phoenix last season.
After having a rough night on Saturday against the Bulls, the Cavaliers second unit bounced back strong on Monday – led by Matthew Dellavedova, who celebrated Australia Night in style, finishing with 18 points, going 6-of-12 from the floor, including 4-of-8 from long-distance. Iman Shumpert added nine points off the bench and Timofey Mozgov turned in one of the most electrifying plays of the season, throwing down a massive left-handed dunk off a fastbreak alley-oop from Delly.
