LeBron James' Cavs lead by as many as 45 in a thrashing of league-worst Dallas
With far too many people hand-wringing over LeBron James’ infrequent nights off, the Cavaliers got down to the most efficient form of limiting minutes – by blowing the buggers out, early.
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The toppled, in this round, were the Dallas Mavericks. Fresh off of adding Dirk Nowitzki back into the messy midst of a seven-game losing streak, while still working with the worst winning percentage of the Mark Cuban era, the Mavs were down 45 at one point to the defending champs before falling to a 128-90 score:
LeBron ended up, unsurprisingly, leading the Cleveland attack. The NBA’s MVP so far contributed 19 points and 11 assists prior to being removed from the game with a pair of minutes left in the third quarter. He could have sat far earlier, in fact, what with the Cavs racing out to a 20 and 14-point balances over the Mavs in the first and second quarters, respectively.
James was the straw that pushed the ball, or something along those lines, but the star ranked third among his Cleveland teammates in points in this win. Kevin Love hit for 27 points (on 7-9 from long range), 10 rebounds and four assists in under 28 minutes, while Kyrie Irving notched 25 points on 10-13 shooting.
All in the face of what looked like a hapless Dallas Mavericks defense. Deron Williams, who missed the previous four games with a bum left calf, returned just in time to miss four of six shots in the first half prior to sitting the entire second half:
“It’s embarrassing man,” said Deron Williams. “We’ve had some embarrassing losses. We’re pissed off. But we got to get pissed off and do something about it.”
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle concurs:
“It was a horrible performance by us and a great performance by them,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We simply must play better and compete better. Very disappointing. We’re getting healthier gradually. But we have too many things we have to fix. And we’ve got to fix them in a short period of time.”
With the return of Williams and Nowitzki (a team-high 15 points, but on 18 shots), the Mavericks are truly “getting healthier.” It’s going to take a whole lot more than the re-emergence of a 38-year old Hall of Famer and one of Dallas’ litany of gimpy, veteran guards (Jose Juan Barea and Devin Harris are also out due to leg injuries) to push this team into playoff contention. With the 38-point loss on Friday, the Mavs now sport a -10.8-point differential on the season, worst in the NBA.
Prized free agent swingman Harrison Barnes, who paired up against LeBron James in the 2015 and 2016 NBA Finals, added 12 points on 13 shots in 30 minutes. “We didn’t really bring it,” Barnes reminded after the loss.
The Cavs now beat opponents by an average of 9.4 points per game, far behind the first place Clippers (13.8) and defending Western champion Warriors (12.5).
Quietly, despite the team’s national television ubiquity and the noise emanating from J.R. Smith’s clangs (after a 1-11 night against Dallas, he’s at 33.6 percent from the field on the season), the Cavaliers have put together a monstrous record at 12-2. And, even given the heft of Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving’s combined 52-point night, LeBron James’ all-around work reminded that he still is the best thing this game has running today.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
