It’s a song of urgency – “I don’t want to wait for our lives to be over”, goes the chorus, the only words Cunningham knows – but the vibe wasn’t desperate.
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“I just think you have to think about the bigger picture, which is being dialed in”, Love told cleveland.com.
It was good as he could have hoped – and every bit as dramatic as it was for those kids on the creek. Eric Gordon had 19 points and Ryan Anderson 18 for the Pelicans, who led by 13 with less than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. “We’ve got to improve, and we’ve got to improve in a lot of facets of our game in order to be better”. “We got to make sure that we’re playing at this high level no matter who our opponent is”. “We just got to get better”, James said afterward. The Indianapolis Star reported Friday that they’re among teams interested in trading for Pacers small forward Solomon Hill.
The Heat led by as many as 27 points, while the Cavaliers led just once when Timofey Mozgov converted on a dunk to put Cleveland up 8-7 with 8:19 remaining in the first quarter. The Pelicans’ defense had it’s issues in the fourth quarter, at least with respect to LeBron James, but it was solid and confident for long stretches. The nearly 31-year-old James has played more high-stress minutes than almost any basketball player in history at that age and hasn’t shied away from taking two-week breaks in the middle of the season if necessary.
As per Cleveland Cavaliers play-by-play announcer Fred McLeod puts it, sitting James out is long-term thinking for the Cavs to keep their best player out of a tough back to back.
Jimmy Butler scored 25 points and pulled down eight rebounds for the Bulls.
With three minutes left in OT, Davis hit a mismatch jump hook against JR to pull ahead to 106-111.
The Pelicans (5-15) are still way out of contention in the West, but little of that blame falls on Davis’ shoulders.
“It’s totally different”, Cleveland’s J.R. Smith said of playing without James.
It’s the second time this season Portland have overcome a 17-point deficit against Minnesota, having done the same thing on November 2 when the Timberwolves jumped out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter. Miami began the second half on an 8-0 run to boost their lead to 68-42.
In Atlanta, Al Horford scored 16 points and Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore each added 15 as the Hawks beat Los Angeles to spoil Kobe Bryant’s last game in Atlanta. When the Pelicans needed a bucket, they always seemed to go to Davis and he delivered.
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Kyrie Irving has finally started practicing in 5-on-5 drills after fracturing his kneecap in last year’s playoffs, and he should be back on the court pretty soon if all goes well in the next few weeks. It was not a bad clip, but his team relied upon him too much to try to win. Tyreke Evans added a double-double of 14 points and 10 assists, while Holiday finished with 13.
