Just when it looks like the Wine and Gold have everything rolling the right way heading into the homestretch, they come out with another frustrating effort like Thursday night’s performance in Brooklyn.
The Wine and Gold trailed the 19-win Nets for most of the night, but righted the ship late in the third and took a four-point edge early in the fourth. Matthew Dellavedova’s trey midway through the period put Cleveland up by a deuce, 92-90. But Brooklyn would proceed to close the game on 14-3 run to sink the Cavaliers, 104-95, at the Barclays Center.
The perplexing defeat spoiled an outstanding effort by LeBron James – who led everyone with 30 points, going 13-of-16 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the stripe, adding six boards, five assists and a steal. James sunk his first 11 shots and his .813 field goal mark on Thursday night is the fourth-highest of his illustrious career.
Unfortunately for James and the Cavaliers, he didn’t get much help on the offensive end against Brooklyn. Only Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving finished with double-figures for the Wine and Gold, and they were a combined 11-for-36 from the floor, including 1-for-13 from beyond the arc.
Love doubled-up for his second straight game and a team-leading 30th time this season, finishing with 11 points and a game-high 12 boards – going 5-of-14 from the floor and 0-of-5 from long-distance. Even considering Thursday’s struggles, Love is averaging 18.0 points and 12.3 rebounds in three matchups with the Nets this season.
After topping the 20-point plateau in 18 of his previous 24 contests, Kyrie has struggled over the past four – averaging 12.8 points per, shooting 39 percent from the floor and 20 percent from deep. In Thursday’s loss, the three-time All-Star finished with 13 points on 6-for-22 shooting, including 1-of-8 on three-point attempts.
The Nets, who have essentially raised the white flag on this season, were the aggressors from the opening tip and featured five players in double-figures – led by Brook Lopez, who became the second-leading scorer in Nets’ history (behind only Buck Williams) with his 22nd point. Brooklyn has now won seven of their last nine home meetings with Cleveland.
On the night, the Cavaliers shot 44 percent from the floor – (although that number dips to 36 percent excluding LeBron) – but were cold from three-point territory – and despite hitting double-digit treys for the 10th straight game, were just 10-of-38 from deep on Thursday night.
After averaging 33.5 assists over the previous two games, the Wine and Gold handed out only 22 helpers in Brooklyn. They were beat on the boards, on the break and on second-chance opportunities. They were outscored in the paint, 60-46, attempted just nine free throws on the night and managed just 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Add it all up and it spells a difficult defeat for a club that’s as much searching for its identity as it is seeking to lock up the top seed in the Eastern Conference with 10 games to play.
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