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Wrap-Up -- Friday’s game didn’t feature another record-setting first quarter performance – (although Kyrie Irving did post a monster period) – but it did feature another one-sided drubbing by a dominating Cavaliers squad that needed only one half of basketball to dismantle the struggling Mavericks.
Behind another dominating collective effort by the Big Three, the Wine and Gold jumped on Dallas early, opened up a 40-point lead before intermission and cruised to the finish line – sweeping the mini-homestand in style with a 128-90 win on Friday night at The Q.
One game after Kevin Love outscored the entire Portland squad the first quarter of Wednesday night’s route of the Blazers, Kyrie outdid the Mavericks individually in the opening period on Friday – 19-16.
That was indicative of the way it’d go for Rick Carlisle’s team on the evening. The Cavaliers went into the locker room after scoring 72 points in the first stanza and after extending their edge to as many as 43 in the third, Coach Tyronn Lue emptied his bench before the end of the quarter.
Every Cavalier who dressed got in the scoring column and three starters doubled-up in the victory.
Kevin Love followed up his 40-point outburst against Portland to lead both squads with 27 points in 28 minutes – notching the eighth double-double in his last nine outings with 10 boards, four assists and three steals.
Kyrie Irving canned all eight shots he attempted in the first half and didn’t miss an attempt until the 7:26 mark of the third quarter – finishing with 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.
In his 1,000th career game, LeBron James – the Eastern Conference’s leading assist man – was razor-sharp again on Friday night, finishing with 19 points and a game-high 11 assists to go with five boards and a steal.
Tristan Thompson also doubled-up for Cleveland, grabbing double-digit boards for the fifth time in his last six outings – finishing with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, going 4-of-5 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the stripe.
Every Cavalier records a point as the Wine and Gold cruise past the Mavericks.
The Wine and Gold shot over 50 percent from the floor and canned at least 20 three-pointers for the second straight game – averaging 132.5 points per contest for the week.
With the victory – Cleveland’s fifth straight at The Q – the Cavaliers improve to 12-2 on the season, their best start in franchise history.
Turning Point -- As they did two nights earlier against the Blazers, the Wine and Gold didn’t waste any time asserting their dominance – squeezing the Mavericks defensively in the first period while posting 36 points on the offensive end.
Friday’s turning point came early in the contest. Harrison Barnes canned a jumper 18 seconds into the game, but J.R. Smith answered with his lone field goal on the night – giving the Cavaliers their first and final lead of the game.
The Cavaliers would close the first quarter up 20, extending their lead to 34 by half and never looking back after intermission.
By the Numbers – 41 … three-pointers that the Cavaliers have combined for over the past two games. The Cavaliers have now extended their NBA record-setting streak of hitting at least 10 triples to start a season to 14 games and, dating back to last year, have hit at least seven bombs in a league-record 54 consecutive contests.
Quotable – LeBron James, on his team hitting on all cylinders of late …
”It’s what we’re capable of and we’ve been doing it on both ends the last couple of games. Obviously people are going to look at where we’re shooting the three ball right now, but defensively we’ve stepped it up more now and that’s the good thing for me. That’s what I like to see. We know we’re a team that at the end of the day, we have to defend, we have to move the ball offensively and then everything else kind of trickles down from there.”
Up Next -- After blowing out three straight opponents during their mini-homestand, the Wine and Gold hit the road for five of their next six. On Sunday afternoon, the Cavaliers make their final trip to Philly for a Sunday afternoon affair against Joel Embiid and the Sixers. On Tuesday night, they head to Milwaukee for a meeting with the Greek Freak and his Bucks before a brief home stopover – on Thursday night against the Clippers at The Q. After that, it’s another three straight on the road – with matchups in Chicago, Toronto and New York on tap to close out the trip.