Cavaliers at Trail Blazers
The Cleveland Cavaliers snapped a 12-game slide with a 101-95 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday while showing some spark at the defensive end. The Cavaliers' suspect defense will face another strong challenge when they try to make it two straight wins while visiting the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.
Cleveland surrendered 140 or more points in back-to-back games before going into Los Angeles and holding the LeBron James-less Lakers to 39.6 percent from the floor. "It feels good to get off the streak," Cavaliers coach Larry Drew told reporters. "Anytime you go through a stretch like this it can be a little tough on you. I know for the players physically and mentally. I just want to see our guys grow. I want to see growth every game we play. We're not going to play well every game, we're not going to shoot the ball well every game, but from a mistake standpoint I would like to see us grow past where we are making the same mistake over again." The Trail Blazers dropped both ends of a road back-to-back at Denver and Sacramento in the last two games but took the last four at home. "We put ourselves in a tough position, especially on the road against a team who plays really well at home, especially in the second half," Portland point guard Damian Lillard told reporters after the 115-107 loss to the Kings on Monday. "It's not what we wanted, but we knew it was a possibility to go 2-0 or go 0-2, and we dropped both. So, we have to make sure we take care of the next one."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Cleveland), NBCS Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (9-35): Cleveland surrendered at least 123 points in four straight games and 111 or more in eight straight before getting things together on Sunday. "We just have to trust each other and when we talk, I think everything is easier for us like it was today," small forward Cedi Osman told reporters after the win. “Defensively we were getting screened up, but we were talking to each other, so we knew what was going on. I think because of that our job was much, much easier defensively." Osman, whose individual defense is one of the team's big question marks, led the way with 20 points offensively on Sunday while adding eight rebounds and two steals.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (26-19): Lillard led the way with 35 points on Monday but committed six turnovers and missed eight of his 12 tries from beyond the arc. "It was just one of those games," Lillard told reporters. "We weren't sharp passing the ball and some of it we dropped passes and playing in crowds. We knew coming in that they love to play in transition. Our goal was to come in and to make them take the ball out of the net as many times as possible. We kind of played into their hands. We turned the ball over and allowed them to get out in transition." Fellow guard CJ McCollum had a had time finding the basket as well and finished 2-of-14 from the floor en route to a season-low six points.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cavaliers SG Alec Burks grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds on Sunday.
2. Portland SF Maurice Harkless (knee) sat out the last four games and is day-to-day.
3. The home team took the last nine in the series.