Love hurts Blazers
FIRES RECORD 34 PTS IN 1ST QUARTER
CLEVELAND – Kevin Love scored 40 points, including an NBA-record 34 in the first quarter, LeBron James recorded his 44th career triple-double, and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 137-125, on Wednesday night.
Cleveland also set a franchise with 20 3-pointers and showed no signs of being rusty in its first game since Friday.
Love fell three points shy of the league record for points in any quarter, set by Golden State’s Klay Thompson, who scored 37 in the third on Jan. 23, 2015.
Love, who set a team record for points in a period, made 11 of 14 field goal attempts, including 8 of 10 on 3-pointers in the first quarter. He made his first six shots with five 3-pointers.
James had 31 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists for his second triple-double this season. He also passed Guy Rodgers for 17th place on the career assist list.
Damian Lillard scored 40 points for Portland, including 25 in the second half.
Cleveland, which made its first nine 3-pointers, led 46-31 after one quarter and scored 81 points in the first half, two short of the franchise record.
Love missed his only shot in a scoreless second quarter, scored six points in the third and was scoreless again in the fourth. He made 12 of 20 shots, including 8 of 12 3-pointers.
Love recorded his first 40-point game since April 14, 2014, with Minnesota. He scored a career-high 51 points while playing for the Timberwolves on March 23, 2012.
In Dallas, Chris Paul scored 18 points, DeAndre Jordan had 16 points and eight rebounds and the Los Angeles Clippers cruised past the Dallas Mavericks, 124-104, in a matchup of the teams with the best and worst records in the NBA.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting in 20 minutes in his return for Dallas after the 13time All-Star missed eight games with a strained left Achilles tendon.
Austin Rivers added 22 points – half of them in a meaningless fourth quarter – for the Clippers (14-2). They had a 30-6 run in the second and third quarters on the way to their fourth straight win and 11th in 12 games.
Harrison Barnes had 22 to lead the Mavericks (2-12). They lost their seventh straight game to match their longest skid since February 1999, during Nowitzki’s rookie season. Dallas is off to its worst start since going 1-23 in 1993-94.
In other results, Memphis held off Philadelphia, 104-99; San Antonio thwarted Charlotte, 119114; Phoenix outlasted Orlando, 9287; Atlanta downed Indiana, 96-85; Boston smothered Brooklyn, 11192; Detroit thumped Miami, 10784; and Toronto stopped Houston, 115-102.