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Key: Home, Sweet Home
On Tuesday night, the Wine and Gold welcome the Blazers to town looking to snap their season-high three-game losing streak.
After falling in an overtime thriller on Friday night in New Orleans, the Cavaliers arrived in Miami for the second-half of the back-to-back around 5 a.m. On Saturday night, with LeBron James out of the lineup, Cleveland looked listless for much of the night and dropped their 11th straight contest on South Beach. The Cavs haven’t had a ton of success against the Blazers over the past few years – dropping seven of their last nine against Portland.
But, for the first time in a while, the Cavaliers are the well-rested team at home and their opponent comes in on the second night of a back-to-back – with the Blazers dropping a 90-88 decision on Monday night in Milwaukee. With Monday’s loss, Terry Stotts’ squad fell to 0-7 on the season when failing to score 100 points. That’s good news for a Wine and Gold team that’s won 33 straight when topping the century mark.
Key: Dangerous Damian
One Blazers player who probably won’t be affected much by the back-to-back is guard Damian Lillard, who’s averaging 26.4 points per game on zero days’ rest – third best in the league, behind only James Harden and Steph Curry.
So far this season, Lillard has posted 15 games of at least 20 points and five assists, ranking second in the NBA. In three-plus seasons, the two-time All-Star and former Rookie of the Year has never missed a game. And he’s also had some strong outings against the Wine and Gold – including canning a game-winning trey with 0.4 to play two years ago at The Q.
The Cavaliers will counter with their two-headed point guard monster of Matthew Dellavedova and Mo Williams. Since moving into the starting lineup, Delly – still the leading assist-to-turnover guy in the Eastern Conference -- has notched double-figures in two of his last three games. Mo will look to bounce back off a cranky knee to go against the team he spent the 2013-14 season with.
Key: Return of the King
After notching 23 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter of Friday’s OT loss in New Orleans, Head Coach Blatt sat LeBron James on Saturday night in Miami for general maintenance.
With three nights off, James – the Eastern Conference’s second-leading scorer (and top fourth-quarter scorer) – should be ready to rumble when the Blazers roll in. James mentioned at shootaround that his squad takes matchups against the Western Conference seriously, and he’ll get a chance to improve to 3-1 against the West this year on Tuesday. LeBron has certainly had his share of success against Portland over the years, but in his lone appearance against the Blazers last year at the Moda Center, had one of his worst outings of the season – notching just 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting.
Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu is having a solid year, but he’ll have his hands more than full against the game’s greatest player on Tuesday night at The Q.
Key: Love Machine
Growing up Oregon – and spending six years in the Western Conference – Kevin Love knows all about the Blazers.
Cleveland’s two-time All-Star has had a stellar season – especially at The Q, where he’s averaging 20.6 points and 12.8 boards – but he’s struggled over the course of the Cavs’ recent three-game skein. On Saturday night in Miami, Love had his worst game of the young season – finishing with five points on 2-of-11 shooting to go with eight boards and three turnovers.
This season, Love – who comes in averaging 18.8 points and 12.4 boards against Portland in 16 career contests – won’t have to battle LaMarcus Aldridge. Instead, he’ll work against sophomore big, Noah Vonleh as well as Ed Davis – who recently became the first Blazer to tally at least 15 points and 15 boards off the bench.
Love has benefited from the home cooking so far this season; and on Tuesday night, he’ll need that push at The Q to snap him out of an early season funk.
Key: Shooter's Touch
The three-ball has been a big weapon for the Wine and Gold all season. Nobody in the Eastern Conference hits more treys per game than the Cavaliers at 10.0 per contest. So far this season, the Cavaliers have gotten nearly 30 percent (.294) of their scoring from beyond the arc – with only the Warriors (.352) depending more on the long-ball.
The Blazers aren’t far behind, getting .284 of their offensive output from deep. Al-Farouq Aminu, for example, already has 29 treys through his first 20 games – 13 more than he did in 80 games with Dallas last season.
On the other side of the ball, the Wine and Gold have been very good defending the three-ball – especially of late. Despite the losses, none of Cleveland’s last three opponents have shot better than 30 percent from beyond the arc – going a combined 16-for-70 from deep. The Cavs and Blazers have gotten into some serious shootouts over the years. We could be in for another high-scoring affair on Tuesday night at The Q.