Written by Chris Haynes at Cleveland.com
The L.A. nightlife apparently didn’t do its job over the three-day period the Cavaliers were in town, because they were of intense and clear focus in thrashing the Los Angeles Clippers 114-90 on Sunday at Staples Center.
LeBron James produced 27 points, six rebounds and five assists to lead the way for Cleveland (47-18).
The game was an early 12:30 p.m. Pacific time tip, and an hour of sleep was lost due to daylight savings time. If you add in the attractive atmosphere, it had all of the ingredients of a setup loss for the Cavaliers.
Yet according to Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, there was not a heavy emphasis placed on reminding players to do the right thing.
“They’re grown men,” Lue said. “They understand what we’re playing for and what we’re trying to do. I trust those guys.”
If there were any complications of the city’s side-effects, it was shown early in the game. Los Angeles (42-23) jumped out to a 14-4 lead. J.R. Smith was having a difficult time chasing J.J. Redick around curling screens. The guard hit nine of his team’s first 14 points and finished with a team-high 19 points.
A fan nearby yelled, “Oh, we got this one.” Not so fast, season-ticket holder.
Cleveland refused to fold. The Cavs went on a 17-5 run to close the quarter out. Just like that, the Cavaliers took over the game and never relinquished it.
Defensive stops led to transition points, and there was none better than Irving’s second-quarter fastbreak pass to a trailing James for a thunderous two-handed slam dunk. He then stared at the crowd while trotting back on defense.
Smith got red-hot in third quarter, splashing in five of his six 3-pointers. Cleveland had that ball zipping from side-to-side. Los Angeles’ defense couldn’t rotate quickly enough.
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