POSTGAME NOTES CLEVELAND CAVALIERS VS. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2019 POSTGAME STATISTICS FINAL SCORE: CAVS 110, TRAIL BLAZERS 123 UPDATED RECORDS: ·Cleveland is 14-47 on the season and 9-23 at home. ·Portland is 37-23 on the season and 13-15 on the road.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE CAVALIERS NOTES: Cleveland scored 110 points and had 22 assists with just eight turnovers tonight. During their five-game home stand, the Cavs averaged 115.8 points, 27.2 assists and 14.8 three-pointers. The Cavaliers connected on 13 three-point field goals tonight. The Cavs have made at least 10 three-pointers in 34 games this season, including a season-long tying 7 consecutive games (also 7 games from 12/5/18-12/16/18). The Wine & Gold shot .885 (23-26) from the free throw line, their 29th outing with at least a .800 clip or better from the charity stripe this season. Cedi Osman tallied a team-high 27 points on 10-16 (.625) shooting, including 3-5 (.600) from deep, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal in 32 minutes. Osman now has 10 20+ point performances this season. Over his last nine appearances (since 1/23), he is shooting a combined .550 (66-120) from the field and .500 (28-56) from beyond the arc, while averaging 19.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 31.7 minutes per contest. Jordan Clarkson posted 19 points, five rebounds, two assist and one steal in 28 minutes off the bench. Clarkson has 52 double-digit scoring efforts this season and is averaging a career-high 17.0 points per game. Kevin Love recorded his third consecutive double-double (6th of the season) with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds in 28 minutes. Over his last four appearances (since 2/11), Love is averaging 20.0 points and 11.0 rebounds in 23.0 minutes per game. He has also connected on .483 (14-29) from three-point range over that span. Larry Nance Jr. contributed 10 points on 3-6 (.500) shooting, five rebounds, a team-high tying five assists and one steal in 28 minutes. Nance Jr. has scored in double figures on 24 occasions this season. Collin Sexton tallied 11 points in 32 minutes of work. With 3 three-point field goals tonight, Sexton has now connected on 69 threes on the season, only five shy of passing Kyrie Irving’s Cavaliers rookie record (73 3FG in 2011-12). Matthew Dellavedova dished out a team-high tying five assists in 17 minutes off the bench. Dellavedova has handed out at least five assists in a career-long 7 straight outings (since 2/8), averaging 7.3 assists per game over that stretch.
TRAIL BLAZERS NOTES: CJ McCollum shot 7-8 (.875) from beyond the arc, tallying a game-high 35 points and seven rebounds in 36 minutes. Seth Curry finished with 15 points on 5-5 (1.000) shooting from three-point range in 16 minutes off the bench. Damian Lillard had 21 points and a game-high eight assists in 37 minutes.
CAVALIERS VS. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS February 25, 2019 CLEVELAND CAVALIERS POSTGAME QUOTES HEAD COACH LARRY DREW (On if he’s happy with how the guys battled back after a rough start): “Yeah we fought back, I’m pleased about that. Against good teams you can’t dig yourself a hole as we did at the start of the game. I thought we did a good job as far as fighting back, but you have to exert a lot of energy, particularly against a good defensive team and a team that’s as good as they are offensively. They really shot the ball well tonight and we did not do a good job defending the three-point line. I thought the effort was there, minus the start of the game, I thought we played a pretty good basketball game.” (On Kevin Love having 18 points and 12 rebounds despite having a poor shooting night): “It was just one of those nights, he’ll bounce back. You have to give credit where credit is due. When I look at Portland, they’re a good defensive team, they’re solid defensively in every position. They’re big and I thought they made it a little tough for us tonight. He had a little tough time shooting it, but he’ll bounce back.” (On Cedi Osman getting locked in during the second half): “Yeah, I thought he had a terrific game. What I’m most pleased about is, he’s making shots, but he’s doing a phenomenal job making the right decisions, making the right passes and that speaks volumes. We run plays for all of our guys and just because a play is run for you doesn’t mean that’s your time to shoot the basketball. It’s your time to make the right play, if the shot is there you take the shot, if the pass is there you make the pass. He’s doing a phenomenal job deciphering when to pass it and when to shoot it.”
KEVIN LOVE (On digging out of a big hole and how mentally and physically draining it is): “It was tough, but we were resilient in coming back from such a large deficit. We dug ourselves a hole early in the game. That’s on the starters. The second unit came back in and really fought to get us back. Obviously, the halftime deficit was 48-71, but we fought back and continued to move the ball up the floor. We were scoring the basketball. We were getting stops. We were getting it out and just getting it side-to-side. I thought Cedi (Osman) really played exceptional. We had guys that stepped up and showed a lot of heart in fighting back. It was a tough go…We were saying how it didn’t feel like a double-digit loss. It just got away from us a little bit there at the end.” (On how being on a minutes restriction affects his flow in the game): “I think tonight there was only one big stretch where I was out, and that was between the third and the fourth. I think right now, in general, just trying to get a rhythm. Tonight, I felt good. The wind is feeling better and better so I’ll just keep fighting past that. I knew it was going to be between 25 and 30 (minutes). I felt good out there. Just wish a couple balls would have bounced the other way, a couple calls would have gone different, but that’s part of the game.” (On who he feels like he helps the most by being on the floor): “Maybe Cedi (Osman). Maybe Collin (Sexton). Maybe Big Z (Ante Zizic) too, just by spacing the floor because the other team has to react to that. Being able to play inside out, being able to pass the ball, I think all of us have been gelling in practice and the more time we’re out there together, the better we’re going to get. I told Cedi, when he’s free-flowing, either playing downhill, he has his shot or he gets off the ball and gets it back. That’s really helping us in our movement and having constant flow. In that second unit…we were getting a little stuck and we weren’t in our sets. We were either shooting a last-second shot in the shot clock or we were turning the ball over. That’s tough when we do that. You can’t win a basketball game like that, but we got better throughout.”
JORDAN CLARKSON (On what brought them back from being down 23 after halftime): “We were just fighting in that third quarter. We got stops, they were missing shots, we were forcing the tough ones. We were getting out in transition, making plays, making plays towards the rim and just scoring, and that’s how we cut back in the deficit.” (On how tough it is to stop Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum): “It’s like you said, they make you pay for any mistake. You give them second chance points or they’re relocating and getting to the three, knocking them down. They just do a good job of keeping going, keeping firing them up until they go in. The last two minutes, I think they scored most of their points from the three-point line. So just in terms of that, we’ve just got to figure out how to slow those guys down and make other people beat us.” (On Cedi Osman’s decision making): “He’s been doing really well. He’s really slowing down a lot in terms of him getting into the paint, making those finishes as well as having the confidence to shoot the three. Somebody leaves him some space, he’s going to fire it up, and he’s just done a great job since the All-Star break. Even before (the break), before he had gotten hurt, you could see his game start falling into place. So he’s definitely getting better and it’s good to see that…He looks a little bit more comfortable with the ball. I’m not sure if it’s the All-Star break or something – he’s working with somebody – but he’s just doing a good job of putting the ball on the floor, getting to his spots and making baskets.” (On if his mindset is different entering the game when the team has a big deficit): “No – for me, in terms of my aggressiveness, that’s kind of my job, to be a spark off the bench and score quickly and try to get us back into the game, especially when the deficit is like that. LD (Head Coach Larry Drew) put me in there for that reason, and I just try to give us a boost.”
CAVALIERS VS. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS February 25, 2019 PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS POSTGAME QUOTES HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS (On the game tonight): “It was kind of a different game. Obviously, the first half was fun to watch. The ball is moving. We’re hitting shots. Playing good defense. Couldn’t ask for much more from the first half. Second half, Cleveland played well. They played harder than us. They got offensive rebounds. They got rhythm. They gained some confidence at the offensive end and credit to them for the way they played in the second half. I obviously liked the way we finished. That little run we made with the threes certainly made a difference.” (On if he was surprised the Cavaliers cut it to a one possession game): “No. In this league, you see it all the time. They got good players. Kevin Love is a good player. They played hard so anything can happen. We’ve blown leads. We’ve come back from leads. You see it all the time.” (On CJ McCollum’s performance tonight): “First two games, obviously, on the road trip, we haven’t shot the three well. We made up for it tonight but CJ, even despite the foul trouble, he had a good rhythm to his shot, getting into the lane, but it was good to see some threes go.”
DAMIAN LILLARD (On losing their 23-point lead): “A lot for us to learn from. Just situations we put ourselves in and stuff. We gave up on rebounding. I think it’s something to take away from it but it happens. It’s a league of a lot of talent. Guys are the best in the world so they’re going to go on runs. Especially when you’re on the road, middle of a road trip, it’s going to happen. I think it’s important for us to weather the storm and find a way to get it done but we just got to be better but it happens.” (On the difference in the first half and second half): “Just more aggressive. I think in the first half we came out and tried to set the tone so every little thing we were sharp, we were on top of it and coming into the third (quarter) up 23, we took the energy out of the building a little bit. I think we came in and took for granted how hard we worked and the things that we were doing a lot allowed that to happen and they got life so not only were we not as sharp as we were in the first half, but they got a little more energy, a little more life to them. They got a few shots to fall. A few extra rebounds. A few fouls and before you know it, you got a game.”
CJ McCOLLUM (On how it feels to play in front of friends and family tonight): “It’s nice. It’s nice to play well in front of a lot of friends and family. They spent a lot of money on tickets and driving up here from Canton and I spent a little money myself so I figured I’d try to be aggressive and try to get us a win.” (On if they’re gearing up for the stretch run of the season): “Yeah, we’re getting there. We’re still a work in progress. We’re not finished by any means. Figuring out what we’re good at, what we need to improve upon and just figuring out how to get wins is the biggest things. Get wins and get ready for the playoffs.”
