Cavaliers aim to pick up speed vs. Nets
NEW YORK -- The Cleveland Cavaliers officially are in the postseason. Now they can turn their focus toward developing chemistry and cohesion with some players limited by injuries in recent weeks. Cleveland's next chance to do so occurs Sunday afternoon when it visits the Brooklyn Nets. The Cavaliers (43-29) officially secured their fourth straight playoff berth when Detroit lost at Houston on Thursday. Then they dominated the second quarter en route to a 120-95 thrashing of the Phoenix Suns on Friday. It gave them a fourth straight win and improved their record to 12-7 since revamping the team with trades for Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr., George Hill and Jordan Clarkson More significant was that it occurred on a night when Tristan Thompson, Nance and Hood returned from injuries. Thompson had 10 rebounds in 16 minutes after missing eight games with an ankle injury. Nance finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes following a four-game absence with a hamstring injury while Hood scored nine points in 20 minutes after sitting five of six games with a back injury. "It was great to have (more) bodies that looked good," Cleveland superstar LeBron James told reporters. "Before we even ran out, our huddle was almost complete, so it was a good step in the right direction." Besides getting three rotation players back, the Cavaliers played their third game since Kevin Love returned from a hand injury. After missing nearly two months, he has 61 points in those games after getting 20 on Friday. Despite those returns, the Cavaliers won't be whole Sunday as Kyle Korver is not with the team due to the death of his brother and Cedi Osman remains out with a hip injury. "I'm staying even-keeled because you can have a great week like this week and then you can have a horrible week next week," James told reporters. "We got better this week. We played well this week. "We won some really good games versus teams that are at the top, teams that are at the bottom and we worked our habits. We just want to continue to not get too high about what we just accomplished. We did what we wanted to do, and we want to try to continue to do that going into next week." James scored 27 points while sitting out the third and is averaging 33.7 points on 58.8 percent (53-of-90) shooting during the winning streak. Brooklyn (23-50) is coming off another close loss and is 16-30 in games where there is a five-point margin with less than five minutes to play. Two nights after blowing a 23-point lead at home to the Charlotte Hornets, the Nets were dealt a 116-112 loss at Toronto. After getting outscored 36-18 in the fourth Wednesday, the Nets were outscored 32-21 and dropped to 5-21 in their last 26 games. "That Charlotte loss was very tough," Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters. "I really wanted to see what kind of group we have. We're not into moral victories, but I did like our compete (level)." D'Angelo Russell notched his first career triple-double with 18 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds. It was Brooklyn's first triple-double since Terrence Williams on April 9, 2010 against Chicago, and it occurred on a night when the Nets blew a 14-point lead. "A lot of our games come down to that one play," Russell told reporters. "I think good karma is coming our way. We've just got to stay competitive and stay locked in these last few games." One of Brooklyn's close wins occurred exactly five months ago when Spencer Dinwiddie scored 22 points to offset a James triple-double in a 112-107 home win. Cleveland took the other two meetings as James scored 33 in a 119-109 win on Nov. 22 and posted a triple-double in a 129-123 win on Feb. 27. |