The current first place of the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers, avoided having their third consecutive loss by beating the San Antonio Spurs in consistent way 101-81. After their loss against Washington and then the embarrassment of the 29-point defeat against Orlando, the Cavs regained their confidence and their good basketball to beat San Antonio at home this past Sunday. This was the 37th home victory for the Cavaliers, who have lost just one game at home. Moreover, if they manage to win the next three home games, the Cavs could match the best home record in the NBA history placed by the Celtics during the season 1985-86 with a 40-1.
Since the beginning, Lebron James started strong by making 6 out of 9 from the field and 6 free throws, scoring a total of 18 points in the first quarter. And even with James contribution the Cavs were only leading 28-27 at the end of the first quarter. However in the second quarter, the bench from Cleveland outplayed the Spurs’ bench, by starting with a 10-0 run. Later two shots from West and Williams put the score 38-27 with just 4:30 left. And immediately, just in the final seconds a three-point shot from Williams extended the lead for the Cavs finishing at half time 55-42.
Following the third quarter Parker and Finley tried to comeback and shortened the score to only seven-point difference, but Ilgauskas came to the rescue for the Cavs with an 8-0 run to extend the lead again to 15 points, 78-63. During the fourth quarter, things get worst for the Spurs, who never fought back meanwhile the Cavs, on the other hand, extended their lead with the help of their superstar Lebron James, who even scored one three-point shot at the end and finished with 38 points.
The best scorers for the Cleveland Cavaliers were Lebron James with 38 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, Mo Williams with 22 points and 5 rebounds, Delonte Williams with 22 points and 6 rebounds and Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 8 points and 10 rebounds. For the San Antonio Spurs the only starter with double digits was Tony Parker with 24 points and 4 assists and he only received the contribution of Drew Goode, who scored 15 points and wrapped 5 rebounds.
With these statistics, what made the difference were the rebounding, the defense and the desire of Cleveland to win the game whereas the Spurs couldn’t get the contribution out of four starters and the bench was outplayed as well. This triumph put the Cleveland with the best record in the NBA with 62-15 and behind them is the LA Lakers of the West Conference with a record of 61-16.
After the game Lebron expressed he was really proud of the team’s effort and their desire to leave the two losses behind.
"The last two games we didn't show what we've done all year, play Cavalier basketball and we got embarrassed," superstar Lebron James expressed. "So you just can't go out there and turn it on anytime you want to because you get embarrassed at times. To come back home, to our home crowd and to play like we played tonight is a good sign."
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