*** The Cavaliers wrapped up their five-game West Coast trip with a pair of losses over the weekend in Los Angeles – both equally painful. On Saturday afternoon, the Lakers snuffed Cleveland’s second-half rally and cruised to the finish line. On Sunday, the Clippers erased the Cavs’ 26-point second half behind Paul George’s 23-point fourth quarter – with the nine-time All-Star knocking down the go-ahead bucket with 7.1 seconds to play and rejecting Darius Garland’s layup attempt with 1.7 remaining to seal the 120-118 win and send the Wine and Gold home with three straight defeats.
*** Playing without Donovan Mitchell – who continues trying to rest his left knee – the Cavaliers posted their best offensive stanza of the year, scoring 80 points before intermission and leading by three TDs at the break. But Cleveland cooled off in the second half, tallying just 18 points in the third quarter and 20 more in the fourth – shooting 32 percent from the floor, including 2-of-12 from long-range. The Cavs committed just six turnovers through the first three quarters, but gave it away five times in the final period and were unable to stop Paul George – who led both teams with 39 points – down the stretch.
*** J.B. Bickerstaff spoke about his team’s tale of two halves following the loss. “I think it was an accumulation of, obviously, that third and fourth quarter. I thought we were still doing the right things. We were sharing the ball, we were getting to our spots, we just went kind of cold in the second half. We were doing all the right things, just couldn’t get the ball to go for us.”
*** The Cavaliers wrapped up their road schedule with a 22-19 mark – the 22 wins marking the highest total since winning 24 in the title-winning season back in 2015-16. With just one more meeting left against a Western Conference squad – Memphis on Wednesday – the Cavs record against the West this year is 16-13.
*** Darius Garland led the Cavs in scoring for the second straight night – following up his 26-point effort in Saturday’s loss to the Lakers with a 28-point showing on Sunday, going 10-for-22 from the floor, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and 4-of-5 from the stripe, adding eight assists and, for the second straight game, leading both teams with five steals.
*** Garland talked about trying to stay positive with the season coming down to its final week. “I’m not going to say that we’re down, but this one hurt. But we'll move on to the next one. A few more games left here in the season, so we’ve got to up our intensity and up our focus so we can win these next three and move forward to the postseason.”
*** As good as Garland was distributing the ball on Sunday, Max Strus was a little better – handing out nine assists to lead both squads, adding 20 points on 5-of-11 shooting, including 4-for-9 from long-range, adding four boards and a steal in the loss. Sunday marked Strus’s 10th game of 20-plus this season.
*** Jarrett Allen registered his 40th double-double of the season on Sunday afternoon – finishing with 17 points and a team-high 10 boards. Allen is now the fifth Cavs player to rack up at least 39 double-doubles in a season, joining LeBron James, Carlos Boozer, Andre Miller and Kevin Love.
*** Evan Mobley reached the 20-point mark for the fifth time in his last six games – netting 10 of his 20 points in the opening period, going 8-for-17 from the floor overall, adding six boards and four assists in the loss. Over that recent six-game stretch, the 3rd-year man from USC is averaging 18.7 points on 61 percent shooting.
*** Caris LeVert struggled in the second half of Sunday’s loss – going scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting while having his hands full with Paul George – but he was solid in the opening stanza, netting all 18 of his points on 7-of-9 shooting. On the night, LeVert went 7-for-15 from the floor to go with five boards, a pair of assists, a steal and a blocked shot, and on the five-game trip, the 8th-year man from Michigan averaged 18.2 points on 57 percent shooting.
*** Isaac Okoro returned to the lineup after a five-game absence with a sprained toe and rounded out the Cavaliers in double-figures – coming off the bench to net 11 points, connecting on all four shot attempts to go with three boards in 25 minutes of work off the bench.
*** After wrapping up their final regular season road trip of the year with a 1-4 mark, the Wine & Gold come home to close out the campaign – welcoming the Grizzlies to town on Wednesday night followed by a visit from the Pacers on Friday. Cleveland’s final tune-up before the postseason comes on Sunday afternoon, welcoming the Hornets to town for Fan Appreciation Night.