In the NBA, there are no sure things. But the Wine and Gold beating the Clippers in their annual visit to the North Coast is about as close as it gets.
On Thursday night, despite playing their third game in four nights, the Cavaliers dropped the Clippers for the 13th time in their last 14 visits to Cleveland – improving to 18-3 all-time against L.A. on the corner of Huron and Ontario with the convincing 115-102 victory.
Four Cavaliers scored at least 18 points, including LeBron James – who earlier in the evening was named to his 12th straight All-Star Game as the Conference’s top vote-getter. In Thursday’s win, the four-time MVP doubled-up with 22 points and a game-high 12 assists.
J.R. Smith – who passed Glen Rice and into 18th place on the NBA’s all-time three-pointers list with his second triple of the night – added 22 points of his own, going 6-of-7 from beyond the arc and 8-of-12 from the floor overall.
Kevin Love turned in another big performance – following up Wednesday night’s 17-point, 18-rebound performance in Brooklyn with 18 points and 16 boards against the Clippers at The Q.
The red-hot Clippers, who came into Thursday’s contest having won 10 of their previous 11, went toe-to-toe with Cleveland through most of a first quarter that featured eight lead-changes. But the Wine and Gold went on a 14-5 run late in the second period to give themselves some breathing room before intermission.
In the third quarter, Coach David Blatt went with a “Hack-a-Jordan” strategy that he decried in his pregame media session, and it slowed the high-powered Clippers to a crawl, with DeAndre Jordan clanging five straight free throws as the Cavaliers improved their advantage to 16 and held on for the win.
Chris Paul led all scorers with 30 points, but he had his work cut out for him on the defensive end trying to contain Kyrie Irving, who finished with 21 points on 8-for-18 shooting.
Timofey Mozgov was the fifth Cavalier starter to notch double-figures – finishing with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting, adding five boards, two steals and a pair of blocks.
As was the case in Wednesday night’s win in Brooklyn, the Cavaliers got strong contributions off the bench, with Tristan Thompson snagging 12 rebounds – his 23rd game this season with double-digit boards – to go with eight points, Matthew Dellavedova finishing with six points and six boards and Iman Shumpert helping to hold J.J. Redick – the league’s leading three-point marksman – to just 2-of-6 from long-distance on Thursday night.
On the night, the Cavaliers shot 51 percent from the floor, including 46 percent from deep, handing out 29 assist on 42 made-baskets. Cleveland outrebounded the Clippers, 47-35, leading to their 24-7 advantage on second-chance points.
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