Dec 21 vs Grizzlies

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Wrap-Up – Aside from last week’s hiccup against Atlanta, the Cavaliers have been a very dangerous team on the corner of Huron and Ontario, and they kept their mojo rolling on Sunday afternoon – going wire-to-wire over the shorthanded Grizzlies for the 105-91 win.

Sporting the second-best record in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference, the Grizzlies came to Cleveland without the services of their talented big man, Zach Randolph and their top perimeter defender, Tony Allen. But they got no pity from the Wine and Gold, who jumped out to an 18-4 lead and never looked back.

LeBron James led both teams with 25 points and 11 assists, going 9-for-15 from the floor, including 3-of-5 from long-distance. Dion Waiters came off the bench to follow up with 21 points in 28 minutes, going 9-for-16 from the field. Kyrie Irving tied a career-high with 12 assists to go with 17 points.

Anderson Varejao netted 12 of his 18 points before intermission, adding seven boards and a pair of helpers. And Shawn Marion tied a season-high with 11 points, going 5-of-6 from the floor in the win.

The Cavaliers shot 61 percent from the floor while holding Memphis to 45 percent, including 6 percent (1-of-16) from long-distance. Paced by LeBron and Kyrie, Cleveland had 34 assists on 46 made shots.

LeBron &amp; Kyrie combine for 23 assists.

Watch full final game highlights from Sunday's victory.

Turning Point – As the Cavs have done often this season, and for the second time this week, they jumped a team early at The Q – running out to a double-digit edge halfway through the first quarter and holding a team at bay the rest of the way. Memphis trimmed Cleveland’s edge to four at the end of the third quarter and began the fourth down just five. But the Cavs started the final period on a 10-2 to run to essentially put the game out of reach down the stretch.

By the Numbers – 15-3 … Cleveland’s all-time record against the Grizzlies at The Q. The Cavaliers have now won eight of nine and 11 of their last 14 contests at Quicken Loans Arena. In that nine-game stretch, the Cavs are outscoring their opponents by an average of 8.8 points per game (104.8 to 96.8), while shooting .499 from the floor and handing out 25.5 assists. The Wine and Gold are also 8-0 at home when LeBron James tops the 22-point plateau.

Quotable – LeBron James, on Shawn Marion, the team’s starting two-guard one week ago who spent much of Sunday’s game defending seven-footers …

“That’s what it has to be about, that’s what team sports have to be about. It’s not (about) ‘me’ – it’s about the team. ‘Trix is one of those guys – you’re looking at a multi-time All-Star that’s now fitting into a role – and you look at the other side too in Vince Carter. It’s not about ‘you.’ It’s about the team. And if you’re not about the team … you should play golf.”

Up Next – The Cavaliers wrap up their five-game homestand on Tuesday night against the injury-plagued and defensively-challenged Timberwolves. After that they travel for a Sunshine State back-to-back, beginning with a marquee matchup on Christmas Day in Miami. On Friday night, they travel north to Orlando, where they’ll take on a Magic team that they topped by 32 one month earlier at The Q. On Sunday afternoon, the Wine and Gold welcome the struggling Pistons to Cleveland for the first time this season before traveling to Atlanta for a Tuesday night matchup against the Hawks.

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Wine and Gold Tame Grizzlies at The Q

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(On the team’s defense tonight): "I thought we came out well defensively, which set the tone for the rest of the game. In fairness, they were missing Zach Randolph who is an important player and an inside presence for them, but we recognized the lineup they were going to play with and we defended well at every position and we defended well as a team. Again, the fact that we set the tone early for how we were going to play the game, I thought was really a major factor in the win.”

(On sustaining the lead): "What I thought happened, much like our last game, I thought our rotation off the bench did a lot better than it has done in several games. Give a lot of credit to Dion (Waiters), Shawn (Marion), Delly (Matthew Dellavedova) and Tristan (Thompson), who came in with good energy, good defensive effort and pretty good poise on offense, taking care of the basketball. In my opinion, that second wave held their ground and even built a lead for us a little bit which was great."

(On Shawn Marion’s play off the bench): "Originally, when Shawn came in, he was going to be a rotation player from the bench and we struggled early defensively. We felt that we weren’t getting a lot of punch from the bench so we made the move with Dion (Waiters) if you remember and then we went on an eight-game win streak. Then we really saw an upswing in Mike Miller’s conditioning and suddenly we lose him to a concussion. He comes back, we put him in there and sort of put Shawn back in where we originally pegged him, and he’s responded beautifully because he’s a pro, he’s here to win and he knows what to do."

(On Anderson Varejao’s contribution): “Andy was great and it was good to see. He had a couple of tough games like everybody does…Guys during the course of a season go through a week, sometimes 10 days or three games that you just don’t have it. Andy had struggled just a little bit but he’s just such a great personality and also a great pro. You just know he’s going to bounce back. He was terrific tonight and not only on offense, but defensively he played one of the better big men in the NBA extremely well for the minutes that he was in the game.”

(On his game tonight): “I was there to knock shots down. We moved the ball tremendously tonight. We have to play like that all the time. We are finally making the right plays, playing defense, playing together and we’re a dangerous team when we can do that.”

(On if he knows whether it’ll be “his night” or not): “Not really, I just let it come to me. I take what they give me and try to not force it. I really don’t take a lot of shots. I just try to do other things and then once Bron (LeBron James) and Ky (Kyrie Irving) go out, that’s when I go ‘okay, now I can do a little bit of scoring’. When they come back in, you have to find that role and stay in that role. You have to still be mentally locked in, because once you get it rolling they’re going to continue to feed it.”

(On his game tonight): “For this team, I just have to be aggressive, whether its making plays for my teammates or making plays for myself. Guys were knocking down shots, which is a luxury for this game. They wanted to hold us to under 100 points and we kind of just took it upon ourselves to stay aggressive and keep attacking in transition and playing our basketball.”

(On playing the Memphis Grizzlies): “They’re a true veteran, playoff team. They know how to win ball games. For us, we knew it was going to be a challenge and we just wanted to come out with a high defensive intensity and I think we did that tonight. We still have to improve on a few things, especially on our weak side defense. But for us, we’re pretty proud of this effort tonight and I’m proud of our guys. We just have to take the day off tomorrow – thank God that we get the day off – and come ready to play Minnesota, a good young team.

(On tonight’s game): “We played a really good game. We shared the ball, we had a low turnover game. That’s a good ingredient for us for being successful, and 34 assists is huge. That was a great game for us.”

(On Dion Waiter’s game tonight): “He’s learning every day. He’s a young guy. He hasn’t experienced much in this league. For him to have a game like he did today, we needed it. We needed that spark off the bench. He’s aggressive, he was decisive with what he wanted to do. It was a huge, huge boost for our bench. Also, Matrix (Shawn Marion) too coming in giving us those big minutes, but Dion played a great game.”

(On tonight’s game): “I don’t think the game was as close as the score indicates. I think they played loose and free. They’ve got a lot of talent. They (played well) because they could. We didn’t play with enough energy and force, whether that be legs, focus or whatnot.”

(On the Cavs): “You can’t play from behind against (a team like the Cavs). This is a super team. You talk about three players (LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love) that are max guys and that made a lot of plays. They’re really good.”

(On tonight’s game): “I thought we couldn’t get enough stops to get in a rhythm. We feed off of defense. We scored a little bit, but we couldn’t get enough of them to get going. They got way too many easy baskets in the paint. I know they have shooters, but our principles went away pretty quick and we went away from the game plan too fast.”

(On his team playing without Tony Allen and Zach Randolph): “It’s not me (to blame the loss on their absence). It’s never been me and it’s not going to be me now. We are who we are, we play who we have and who’s not here is not here. So I’m not going to make excuses. We have enough talent in this locker room not just to win tonight, but to win the same amount of games that we’ve won so far. I have a lot of faith in the people and the personnel that we have. It was not about not having those two outstanding players tonight.”

(On tonight’s game): “A lot of it had to do with our defense tonight. We gave up too many easy baskets. They were getting too many good looks in the paint and pretty much doing whatever they wanted to do. When we can’t stop the ball, we can’t get out into transition and we can’t get out into our offense quick. It kind of slows our pace and what we want to do.”

(On his team losing momentum during a sequence at the end of third quarter): “That was a tough transition. We felt like we were making the right moves and making the right plays at that point in the game. The game was in our favor. In the fourth quarter, we couldn’t make those plays. We couldn’t make the easy plays. We made it too tough on ourselves. You give them a lot of credit. They had a lot of great play from a lot of their stars.”

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Game Quotes: Cavaliers vs. Memphis Grizzlies - Dec. 21

clejsykes

Listen to Radio Play-by-Play announcer John Michael's Call of the Game during the Cavaliers vs. Memphis Grizzlies game on December 21, 2014. Dion Waiters finds LeBron James for the fastbreak, alley-oop flush.

Escucha a la voz en español de los Cavaliers Rafa "El Alcalde" con la narración de la jugada del partido entre Los Cavaliers de Cleveland vs. Los Grizzlies de Memphis  en El Quicken Loans Arena  el 21 de Diciembre del 2014.  Los Cavs derrotaron a los Grizzlies 105-91con una gran actuacion en conjunto y con Dion Waiters apoyando con 21 puntos de la banca incluyendo su segundo triple de la noche que termino de sellar la victoria para Los Cavs.

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Call of the Game: Cavs vs Memphis Grizzlies - Dec. 21

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Five Keys: Cavaliers vs. Grizzlies - Dec. 21, 2014

clenadams

The Cavaliers continue their five-game homestand as they face the Memphis Grizzlies today for the first of two regular season matchups. Tipoff is at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Cleveland (15-10) improved to 10-3 in their last 13 games after defeating the Brooklyn Nets, 95-91, on Friday night. The team is 7-1 this season when holding opponents to 91 points or less. In the final three quarters, Cleveland held Brooklyn to only 58 points on .404 (23-57) shooting from the field.

Coming into today’s contest, Cleveland has won seven of their last eight games at Quicken Loans Arena. Over that stretch, the Wine and Gold have outscored its opponents by an average of 7.6 points per game (104.3 to 96.6), while shooting .486 from the field and dishing out 24.5 assists (only 12.5 turnovers).

Memphis (21-5) was allowing a league-low 94.0 points per game before a couple of overtime games caused that number to increase slightly.

Two nights after a 117-116 triple-OT victory in San Antonio, the Grizzlies lost to Bulls, 103-97, on Friday night in Chicago for their first loss in seven games.

WTAM 1100, 100.7 WMMS, 87.7 FM La Mega, AM 1590 WAKR (Akron)

Get into the conversation with other die-hards.

Probable Starters/Status Update*presented by Cleveland Clinic

Status Update: Mike Miller, (Left Ankle Sprain, Questionable)

Grizzlies: PG - Mike Conley, SG - Courtney Lee, SF - Tony Allen PF - Zach Randolph, C - Marc Gasol

Status Update: (Grizzlies) - Tony Allen, (Right Corneal Abrasion, Questionable), Zach Randolph, (Sore Right Knee, Questionable)

The Cavs and Grizzlies split last year’s series with each team winning on its home floor. Cleveland holds a 14-3 all-time record against Memphis at Quicken Loans Arena.

The last time these two teams faced off at The Q on Feb. 9 of last season, the Wine and Gold took a 91-83 overtime win over the Grizzlies. Defensively, the Cavs held Memphis to 33-86 (.384) shooting from the field, including 3-14 (.214) from the three-point line.

Kyrie Irving led the way with a game-high 28 points on 9-17 (.529) shooting, including 4-4 from the three-point line, five rebounds, a game-high tying six assists and one block in 40 minutes. Anderson Varejao posted a game-high 14 rebounds to go along with four points, five assists and one block in 43 minutes, while Dion Waiters registered 18 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals in 38 minutes off the bench.

TV: FOX Sports Ohio, Radio: WTAM 1100, 100.7 WMMS, 87.7 FM La Mega, AM 1590 WAKR (Akron)

Tune into #CavsLive on FOX Sports Ohio starting at 4:00 p.m.

For live in-game updates, follow @cavs, @CavsJoeG, @CavsFredMcLeod, @MrCavalier34, @CavsJMike, @chones22 and @ElalcaldeRafa on Twitter.

Giveaway: Mike Miller 5"x7" Fathead® Tradeable Decal (Cavs Fans 14 and under)

Fan Free Throws presented by Yonanas 100% Fruit Soft Serve

After tonight’s game, the Wine &amp; Gold will conclude their homestand as they host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET.

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GameDay Preview: Cavaliers vs. Memphis Grizzlies

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