From nearly 350 miles away, through the remnants of a polar vortex and a Bulls team that didn’t want him to leave, Luol Deng made his first impact on the Cavaliers Tuesday night.
True, the team’s new small forward still was in Chicago less than 24 hours after he was acquired for the salary cap relief offered in Andrew Bynum. But the emotional lift, the revived expectations and a remarkable newfound shooting touch appeared in Cleveland with the news that Deng is on his way.
The Cavaliers not only topped Philadelphia, 111-93, at The Q, they crushed the Sixers with easy ball movement, hot shooting and energetic overall play.
“It’s definitely an emotional lift for everybody in the locker room, just to get another piece that is veteran leadership and is just going to come out here and play hard for us on both ends of the floor,” point guard Kyrie Irving said. “Not to say that Andrew (Bynum) wasn’t doing that for us, we wish him the best. But Luol, for our perimeter game, can definitely give us the lift we need.”
Playing as if Deng already were in the lineup — he’s expected to arrive Wednesday — the Cavaliers had crisp ball movement. The unselfish play resulted in 21 assists by halftime – four off the team record — and an uncommon shooting touch of 49.4 percent.
It helped that Irving was back in the lineup after missing three games with a knee injury. He knocked in 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting and had eight assists. But most of all, it was C.J. Miles who lit up the sluggish Sixers, setting a Cavaliers record for 3-pointers in a game by sinking 10 of 14 attempts.
Miles’ eight 3-pointers in the first half also set a franchise record, and he finished with 34 points.
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