112-84 Wire to Wire Victory Against Nets

*** The second of the season started the same way the first half finished – and that’s excellet news for the surging Cavaliers. 

The Wine and Gold jumped all over Brooklyn in the first game after the All-Star break, with the league’s hottest squad going wire-to-wire against the overmatched Nets on Thursday night at Rocket Arena, running away with the 112-84 victory, their sixth straight and 11^th in the last 12 outings. 

Former Cavs assistant and current Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez called a timeout 41 seconds into the game after Cleveland scored the first four points of the game, and things just went south from there. The Cavaliers took a double-digit lead less than four minutes into the affair and led by 18 after one quarter. 

The new-look Cavs opened up a 22-point edge at halftime and ballooned their advantage to 43 late in the third quarter. None of Cleveland’s five starters played a single minute in the final period.  

Despite not seeing fourth-quarter action, all five starters notched double-figures in the lopsided win, paced by Donovan Mitchell’s 17 points, going 7-for-12 from the floor, adding five assists and three boards in just under 21 minutes of work. 

Jarrett Allen notched his fifth double-double in the last six games – finishing with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds to go with two blocked shots and a steal. Cleveland is now 12-2 this season when Allen doubles up. 

Allen’s fellow big man, Evan Mobley, returned to the lineup after missing the previous seven games with a strained calf and was solid in his 19 minutes of action – chipping in with 10 points, nine boards and a block. Dean Wade also returned to the lineup on Thursday night and didn’t miss a shot in his short 16-minute burn – finishing with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting, drilling all three three-pointers he attempted. 

Tonight marked the first time Mobley was able to play with James Harden, and the former DPOY was impressed. “I watched a lot of film on him with the Clippers, him and Zubac, and how he got his bigs going,” said Mobley. “And then watching J.A. out there, catching lobs and all that. So, I kind of got a feel for it. But tonight was the first time experiencing it and I think it’s going to be a good 1-2 punch.”

Harden barely missed his third double-double as a Cavalier, tallying 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-5 from long-range, adding a game-high nine assists and three steals in the win. 

The blowout victory allowed Kenny Atkinson to empty his bench on Thursday night – a welcome move with a looming back-to-back and an upcoming stretch of five games in seven nights. Dennis Schroder pitched in with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting in 20 minutes of action and Jaylon Tyson added 11 points and five boards. Thomas Bryant was the only Cavalier who dressed and didn’t see action. 

“This was a professional performance; we really handled our business – especially going into a back-to-back against a team that’s playing really well,” praised Coach Kenny Atkinson. “And we’ve got other challenges in this five-in-seven. It was nice, we could manage the minutes tonight. that’ll help us tomorrow night and over this next stretch. That was really important.”

The Nets were paced by Michael Porter Jr., who finished with 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting, but just 1-of-6 from beyond the arc. 

Overall, the Nets were held to just 35 percent shooting from the floor, 29 percent from deep. Cleveland dominated on the boards, 56-36, and bullied Brooklyn in the paint, 58-26. Thursday marked the fifth time in the Cavs’ last dozen games holding an opponent under the century mark. 

*** After trouncing the Nets to tip off the season’s second half, the Wine and Gold hit the road for a pair, beginning with a Friday night matchup with the Hornets in Charlotte followed by a heavyweight matinee matchup with the Thunder on Sunday in OKC. It’s another big battle after that, with the Knicks rolling into Rocket Arena next Tuesday, with a matchup against the Bucks in Milwaukee the following night. Cleveland closes out the month of February two nights later, taking on the Pistons in Motown next Friday.