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Wrap-Up -- The high-flying Sixers learned a lesson on Friday night: underestimate the Cavaliers at your own risk.
Wins have been hard to come by for Cleveland this year, but they’ve scrapped hard nearly every night. On Friday night, they finally got over the hump – playing their best overall game of the year and earning their first road win, a 121-112 decision at the Wells-Fargo Center in Philly.
The Wine & Gold came out aggressively on Friday and kept the heat on the up-and-coming Sixers all night – weathering a second-half run and pulling away late to win for the sixth time in their last seven visits to the City of Brotherly Love.
No team in the East gets off to a quicker start than the Sixers, who average 30.0 points in the first quarters of games this year. But the Cavs turned the tide on them early, netting 31 points in the first quarter before slowing down in the second. But the tone had been set, and the squads went to the locker room with the game knotted at 54-apiece.
The Cavaliers kept it up after intermission, notching 30 points in the third quarter and – after Jordan Clarkson began heating up – 37 more in the fourth, busting open what was a tie game with nine minutes to play and holding Philly off down the stretch.
Three Cavalier starters tallied at least 20 points, Tristan Thompson registered another double-double and Clarkson, the league’s fourth-leading bench scorer, absolute went off over the final 12 minutes.
Rodney Hood was on the attack from the opening jump and was locked in from long-range – leading Cleveland with 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Rookie Collin Sexton did some of his best work early – netting 10 of his 23 points in the first quarter – finishing 10-of-18 from the floor overall, adding five boards, three assists, a steal and blocked shot.
Cedi Osman, who led Cleveland with 21 points in Wednesday’s home loss to the Lakers, was back at it again on Friday in Philly – tallying 20 points on an efficient 7-for-14 shooting to go with eight boards and a pair of assists.
Tristan Thompson tallies his 8th double-double of the season.
Tristan Thompson led the Wine & Gold with a +19 in his 35 minutes of work, notched his sixth double-double in the last eight games – finishing with 18 points and 13 boards, eight of those off the offensive glass.
Thompson was outstanding on both ends in the victory, limiting Joel Embiid – who came into the contest averaging 32.3 points and 15.7 boards over his last three games – to 24 points and 12 boards, keeping him outside the paint for much of the night.
Tristan was also the main reason Cleveland was able to dominate Philly on the boards. On the night, the Cavaliers outrebounded the Sixers, 42-31 – including a 14-4 advantage on the offensive glass.
Jordan Clarkson had three quiet quarters before breaking out with a vengeance in the fourth – tallying 14 of his 19 points in the closing quarter, going 6-of-10 from the floor, including 2-of-3 from deep in the period and letting some boisterous Philly fans know about it with each passing bucket.
The Sixers’ stars all performed well on Friday – with Embiid, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons and J.J. Redick all topping the 20-point plateau. But Philly’s bench only combined for 17 points in the loss.
The Cavaliers reserves didn’t score a single point until Larry Nance Jr.’s dunk with less than a minute to play in the third quarter. But Jordan Clarkson – and Andrew Harrison, who had his best game in a Cavs uniform – did some heavy lifting in the fourth, propelling Cleveland to the hard-earned victory.
Turning Point -- The Cavaliers have had some heartbreaking losses this year – including Wednesday night’s home loss to L.A. – because they’ve been unable to close out contests in the closing moments.
But the Wine & Gold flipped the script on Friday – hitting the afterburners in the fourth quarter, shooting 58 percent from the floor, including 50 percent from the stripe while committing just a single turnover over the final 12 minutes.
With just over nine minutes to play, Joel Embiid’s layup tied the game at 90-apiece. Cedi Osman answered back with a layup of his own on the next possession – and that keyed a 22-7 run, capped by back-to-back triples from Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson that put Cleveland in the driver’s seat with just under three minutes to play.
The Sixers would cut it to single-digits just once more the rest of the way.
By the Numbers – .857, .857 … Cavaliers’ winning percentage against the Sixers overall (12-2) and at Wells-Fargo Center (6-1) over their last 14 meetings.
Quotable – Coach Larry Drew, on Cleveland’s ability to slow down Joel Embiid in Friday’s win …
”I thought we did a good job. We had a game plan and we had a game strategy and we executed our game plan and game strategy. That was important against this team, because against [Joel] Embiid we can’t defend him one-on-one. We had to try some things and we had to do some things a little differently. As far as execution, we executed a game plan.”
Up Next --After sinking the Sixers on Friday night in Philly, the Wine & Gold return home for a pair – taking on James Harden and the Rockets on Saturday night at The Q. On Monday night, they wrap up the season series against Minnesota when Karl-Anthony Towns and the Wolves roll in. The Cavs then hit the road for a pair of tough matchups to close out the month – traveling to face Russell Westbrook and the Thunder next Wednesday followed by their first trip to Boston two nights later.