Streaking Cavaliers rout Pistons on road
DETROIT — An emphatic win over a first-place opponent had LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers talking confidently again.
“We haven’t had a win like that in a very long time,” James said. “That’s what happens when we don’t let up.”
James scored 16 of his 18 points in the first quarter and the Cavaliers made 11 3-pointers in the first half on the way to a 116-88 rout of the Detroit Pistons on Monday night. Cleveland led 73-46 at halftime thanks to an overwhelming shooting performance, an indication that Detroit’s stay atop the Central Division might not last much longer.
The Pistons still lead the Cavs by a game, but Cleveland has won five straight and scored at least 110 points in eight of its last nine.
“That was 48 minutes of game planning and execution right from the beginning,” James said. “They’ve been playing extremely good basketball. They were coming off a great win (Sunday) night in Minnesota, so we knew that they were going to come out here and try to give us their best shot, and had to be ready for that.”
The Cavaliers led 27-22 when James went to the bench late in the first quarter. By the time he came back in, it was 50-30. Cleveland’s reserves ended up outscoring Detroit’s 26-8 in the first half.
The Cavs shot 62 percent from the field in the first two quarters and 11 of 17 from 3-point range. They finished the game 16 of 33 from beyond the arc.
Tobias Harris led Detroit with 11 points. Kevin Love had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Cleveland.
Kyrie Irving scored 10 of his season-high 47 points in overtime as Boston rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat Dallas on the road and extend its winning streak to 16 games. The Mavericks led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter. Boston tied the game at 96 when Irving stole the ball from Dirk Nowitzki and fed Jayson Tatum for an alley-oop lay-up that hung on the rim for a full second before dropping through. Irving scored his team’s first six points of overtime. Then after Jaylen Brown gave Boston a 104-102 lead with a jumper with 1:39 to play, Irving went to work on Yogi Ferrell, backing him down and drawing contact on a lay-up with 48.5 seconds to play. Though Irving missed the free throw to keep the score 106-102, Dallas never got closer.
Anthony Davis had 36 points and 15 rebounds, and New Orleans Pelicans rallied after DeMarcus Cousins’ ejection to beat Oklahoma City at home. Cousins had 18 points and nine rebounds before he was called for a flagrant foul on Russell Westbrook with five minutes remaining in the third quarter. Cousins raised his elbows near Westbrook’s face after grabbing a rebound, and the Thunder guard dropped to the floor holding his head. Westbrook remained in the game and finished with 22 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists and three steals. However, Westbrook also missed 13 of 19 shots. Bradley Beal scored 23 points to lead Washington to a win over Milwaukee on the road. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 23 points but was 8 for 21 from the field.