They Cav it all
Irving & Love finish off Wizards without LeBron
WASHINGTON — There’s always something with LeBron James, and Monday night was no different, from the gimme layup he somehow missed after admittedly traveling ... to the turnaround, step-back, fadeaway 3pointer he banked in with 0.3 seconds left to force overtime ... to the indignant postgame comments about a report that he’d be OK with trading Kevin Love to acquire Carmelo Anthony.
There was more involving James, who produced a careerhigh 17 assists and 32 points before fouling out 47 seconds into the extra period. That’s when Kyrie Irving took over, scoring 11 of his 23 points in OT, including a tiebreaking 3 with 35 seconds left, to help the Cavaliers edge the Wizards 140-135 in a game that felt more akin to the playoffs in late May than the regular season in early February.
Love provided 39 points, 12 rebounds and the length-of-thecourt pass that led to James’ “He did what?!” 3 at the end of regulation.
“LeBron made a heck of a shot,” Wizards guard John Wall said, “that you probably make one in a million times.”
It put the reigning NBA champion Cavs in position to end surging Washington’s winning streaks of 17 in a row at home and seven in a row overall.
When Love shot free throws in the third quarter, a small section of spectators sang, “Bron wants Melo,” a reference to a report citing an unidentified source that said James is pushing the Cavs to get Anthony from the Knicks — even if it means sending Love to New York.
Asked about the story after the game, the four-time NBA MVP replied: “It’s trash. And the guy who wrote it is trash, too, for writing that.”
For his part, Love posted a quote from Winston Churchill on his Instagram account: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.”
Bradley Beal had 41 points and eight assists for the Wizards, but he missed a potential tying 3 with about five seconds left in OT.
It was a back-and-forth contest, with little runs by each team, plenty of offense, lapses on defense, a lot of complaints about the officiating by folks on both sides and a couple of technical fouls.
All in a hyped-up atmosphere that several players likened to the postseason.
“You have it circled on your schedule for a long time,” Beal said about facing the Cavs. “That was definitely a test and a battle for us. We did a tremendous job of handling it.”