Cavaliers 121, Wizards 115: LeBron James scored 34 points, Kyrie Irving took over in the fourth quarter, and visiting Cleveland beat injury-ravaged Washington on Wednesday night for the Cavaliers’ fifth straight victory.
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Lost in all the attention (and deservedly so) that Irving attracted from this game is how good James and Smith was against Washington.
The Cavaliers are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 vs. Eastern Conference and 4-9-1 ATS in their last 14 road games.
“There will be days when he’s better and days when he’s going to have some effect of the many months he was out”, Cavaliers coach David Blatt said.
Besides James and Irving, there was J.R. Smith scoring 25 points and Thompson scoring 12 points. The Washington Wizards have split their last 10 home games. The final margin was Cleveland’s biggest lead. In practice, he’s actually a shooting guard with the Cavaliers, with James usually directing the offense – and nearly always piling up higher assist totals.
First off, I think it’s important to note that from the tone, it seems pretty clear that this was a amusing, awkward gym-locker-room moment and not a creepy, after-school-special moment.
It is worth mentioning Irving’s last two outings came against John Wall and Kyle Lowry, who are generally considered among the upper tier of point guards in the league and could stand in Cleveland’s way come playoff time. The Wizards are hoping the two full days off between games will allow them to get one or two of their injured players back, with Gary Neal (back), DeJuan Blair (leg) and Drew Gooden (calf) the closest to returning. The Raptors came into the game second in the National Basketball Association in opposing PG field-goal percentage, so Irving going off is impressive. Washington made 14 of 24 3-pointers, but only 17 of 27 from the free-throw line. Kyrie Irving is dishing 4.2 assists and Tristan Thompson is grabbing 10 rebounds.
Cleveland led 62-50 at halftime and 73-55 early in the bombs-away third quarter.
Cleveland held a 40-26 rebounding advantage. James would tie the game at 37 with 6:54 remaining in the first half.
Crowder, who shot eight-for-13, surpassed his career high set December 18 against the Atlanta Hawks. That said, isn’t it insane how much has changed in a year? “He was hitting some tough, tough shots”.
And not just because the previous time that these two teams met, the Wizards handed the Cavs their only home loss of the season and led by as many as 22 in a 97-85 drubbing.
“Absolutely”, James said (via ESPN) when asked if Leah being there provided some additional motivation. “They’re playing well and we’re starting to show progress”. “We just wanted to try to get some give-back”.
Washington led going into the second and was up 35-28 when Ramon Sessions hit a three-pointer. The All-Star guard was eventually named Eastern Conference Player of the Month. F Anthony Bennett, selected by Cleveland with the No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft, was inactive and has appeared in only 10 games, averaging 1.9 points.
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“He’s one year ahead of me, battling for a few years now”, Irving said of Wall.
