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KeyBank Five Keys: Cavaliers vs. Spurs

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Key: Clash of the Titans

For the East’s top squad, the competition doesn’t get any better than this week – with the Wine and Gold having taken on the team with the league’s best record on Monday and welcoming the second-best on Saturday night at The Q.

The Spurs come to Cleveland with a 33-9 mark, having won six of their previous eight, and begin a four-game trip tonight against the Cavaliers.

Tyronn Lue’s squad has topped San Antonio in two of their previous three meetings – including a 117-103 win over the Spurs in their last visit to the North Coast. And over those last three games, the Cavs’ offense is averaging 113.3 points on 49 percent shooting from the floor, including 44 percent from long-range.

The Wine and Gold shook off Monday’s drubbing in Oakland to sink the Suns in their Thursday night homecoming – opening up a double-digit lead late in the first quarter and barely looking back the rest of the way, while the Spurs are coming off a two-touchdown win over the Nuggets later that evening.

After their recent performance against Golden State, the Cavaliers would love to make a positive statement against San Antonio in tonight’s nationally-televised heavyweight bout.

Key: Star-Studded Affair

After Thursday night’s win over Phoenix, LeBron James called Gregg Popovich “the greatest of all-time.” And the Spurs irascible head coach – who got booted from his squad’s matchup with Denver later that night – will try to validate that praise by devising a plan to stop the King on Saturday.

To no one’s surprise, LeBron will make his 13th straight All-Star start – joining just five players to start more than a baker’s dozen. James topped all Eastern Conference vote-getters in all three categories and had the most fan votes in the NBA.

James has a long history with the Spurs, dating back to the 2007 Finals and stretching through his tenure in Miami. He’s faced them 39 times over his career – including playoffs – and comes into tonight’s game with an 18-21 career mark, averaging 26.0 points, 7.7 boards and 6.3 assists in those games.

He’ll lock horns with another All-Star starter in Kawhi Leonard, who’s led the Spurs in scoring in 30 of his 40 games this season.

The soft-spoken superstar comes to Cleveland on a red-hot run – averaging 33.4 points per over his last five games – shooting 64 percent from the floor and 52 percent from long-range, topping the 30-point plateau in each contest.

Key: Big Easy Bound

For as many great outings as LeBron James has had against the Spurs, he’s never had one like the game Kyrie Irving posted against San Antonio two seasons ago, dropping a career-high 57 points on them in an overtime classic at the AT&T Center.

Kyrie cooled down in his next trip to Texas, but was back at it when San Antonio last visited The Q – netting 21 points on 9-for-17 shooting to go with six assists in the win.

Irving – who’ll be making his fourth All-Star appearance, second in New Orleans where he won MVP honors back in 2014 – is coming off a 26-point outing against the Suns, going 10-for-20 from the floor. He’s tallied at least 20 points in four of his last five games against San Antonio and will look to improve on that in Saturday’s prime time showdown.

Kyrie will match up with future Hall of Famer Tony Parker – the fastest player in NBA history to 800 wins – on Saturday night.

The Spurs’ assist leader had notched double-figures in 10 of his previous 11 games before missing Thursday’s matchup with Denver after tweaking his ankle, but is expected to be back in the lineup for tonight’s matchup in Cleveland.

Key: Next (Big) Man Up

Despite the legendary Tim Duncan hanging ‘em up over the summer, the Spurs have barely missed a beat after adding accomplished veteran Pau Gasol to the mix. But after injuring his left hand in pregame warmups (and the ensuing surgery to repair it), Gasol will be out of commission for at least the next month.

As the Spurs so often do, they’ve simply inserted another crafty veteran into the lineup and have made it work.

The veteran in this case is David Lee, who finished with 10 points and a game-high 16 boards in San Antonio’s Thursday night win over the Nuggets. (Although Denver’s Nikola Jokic tormented the Spurs with 35 points and a dozen boards in that game.) Neither Cleveland nor San Antonio plays with a stereotypical center, so they’ll slide LaMarcus Aldrdidge over to the 5-spot frequently throughout the evening.

Tristan Thompson – who bounced back from a dislocated left finger in Thursday’s win – will try to take advantage of Gasol’s absence, but he’ll have to shake out of a recent funk to do so. Thompson has notched double-digit scoring only once in his last five games and hasn’t grabbed double-digit boards since Cleveland’s loss in Portland last Wednesday.

Key: Long-Distance Love Affair

Former Cavalier Danny Green could not have found a better landing spot than San Antonio, where he’s gone on to have the second-best winning percentage in NBA history – a .752 mark in his eighth season out of North Carolina.

Green comes into tonight’s contest as the 8th-ranked three-point shooter in the league and has canned double-digit threes in 21 games so far this season.

Green will match up with a Cavalier currently on his best run of the season – Iman Shumpert. Since being moved into the starting lineup, the sixth-year guard has been outstanding, averaging 16.0 points per in his three most recent starts, including a season-high 17-point effort in Thursday night’s win over the Suns.

During his recent heater, Shump is shooting 63 percent from the floor, including a 61 percent mark from beyond the arc.

His current backup, Kyle Korver, hasn’t been quite as good, but he’s beginning to find his flow with the Cavaliers. After starting out 2-for-10 from the floor and 1-of-5 from long-range, Korver has hit at least three triples in his next three outings, going 14-for-30 from the floor and 10-of-23 from deep over that span.

The Spurs don’t attempt as many three-pointers as the Cavaliers, but they do lead the NBA with a .415 percentage (with Cleveland leading the Eastern Conference at .384). Once the postseason rolls around, both squads will get stingier on the defensive end, but we could be in for a shootout in Saturday night’s main event in C-Town.