The Wine and Gold didn’t have a three-point shooting performance like Sunday’s all of last season. Maybe they turned over a new leaf for 2012.
Led by Boobie Gibson’s five triples, the Cavaliers bombarded the Nets with 16 treys – exploding in the second half to hand New Jersey a 98-82 New Year’s Day drubbing at The Q.
The Wine and Gold looked a little hungover in the first half on Sunday, with the Nets taking a 49-43 edge at half. But Antawn Jamsion, Kyrie Irving and Gibson caught fire after intermission and Cleveland went 5-for-6 from long-distance, outscoring New Jersey, 30-18, in the third.
Apparently the speech Coach Byron Scott gave at halftime did the trick.
“(Coach) just told us, straight up, either we’re just going to go out there and play or we’re going to play to win the game,” said Gibson. “We came out with a changed attitude on the defensive end, which made our offense a lot easier because we were able to get out and run.”
In the fourth, Cleveland’s bench took over – with Alonzo Gee and Gibson combining for 16 points in the final period. Rookie Tristan Thompson did the defensive work, swatting three shots in the fourth quarter.
Jamison scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the third quarter – going 10-for-15 from the floor on the night, netting all three three-pointers he attempted. The 13-year vet added five boards, two helpers, three steals and a pair of blocked shots.
Gibson followed up with 19 points off the bench, with Gee adding 11. Kyrie Irving had another solid outing, going 5-for-11 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from the beyond the arc.
Ramon Sessions (five points) and Anderson Varejao (two) didn’t have big offensive outputs, but Sessions did dish out a game-high eight assists in just under 20 minutes, with the Wild Thing leading all rebounders with 11.
As a team, the Cavaliers went 16-for-26 (62 percent) from three-point range and 6-of-11 (55 percent) from the stripe.
“I’m still not convinced totally that we’re a three-point shooting team, but I think we have some guys that are capable of knocking down some three’s on a consistent basis,” said Coach Scott following the win.
The Wine and Gold welcome the Bobcats to Cleveland on Tuesday night before departing for their longest road trip of the season, beginning the next night in Toronto.