CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavaliers believe. And they continue to win.
Even on a night where for three quarters they couldn’t throw it in the ocean standing on the beach, they continued to believe.
Then came the fourth quarter when Cedi Osman and Kevin Love combined to score Cleveland’s first 25 points of the quarter and spark a 19-0 run to begin the period that erased a 7-point deficit in the blink of an eye before the Cavs cruised to a 98-85 victory.
The rally sent Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse into a frenzy and nearly took the Cavs breath away.
“At one point I was like, ‘Yo, K-Love I think we’re going to need some oxygen,’” Osman said.
He wasn’t the only one.
“I did as well,” Rajon Rondo, who notched his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 assists said.
Osman started the night 0-7 from the field, but he got hot and hit 8 of his last 9 shots, including four 3-pointers, to put up 18 points in the final 12 minutes, a career-high for him in a quarter and the most by a Cavalier in a quarter since LeBron James scored 19 against the 76ers on April 6, 2018. He finished with 22 marking the sixth time he’s scored 20 or more in a game this season.
Love, who finished the night with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists off the bench, hit a trio of 3s in that fourth quarter explosion.
“The fans, when we get on a run like that, it’s just like contagious, infectious, whatever you want to call it,” Love said. “We feed off that so much and it’s so fun in moments like that. It can be anybody. Cedi’s had a number of times like that throughout the season, myself included, just our team going on massive runs. But the way that we came back tonight after not playing a great first half, that was a lot of fun.”
The 3-point barrage in the fourth quarter came out of nowhere considering how the night started but it was their own version of a shock and awe bombardment that brought the crowd to their feet at full throat with each make ending in the largest comeback victory of the season and sixth straight win on the home hardwood.
“At one point we knew that we were gonna come back, because I think we were finding the shots, just we could not knock them down, especially myself,” Osman said. “I think I was 0-for-7 that first half. And that’s actually where the team came up, they trusted me, they gave me the ball and I knocked them down.”
Cleveland fell behind by as many as 20. They hit just 4 of their first 23 shots in the first quarter to trail by 15.
The deficit was 9 at halftime thanks to an 8-24 shooting effort that raised their shooting percentage above 25% for the half.
“We just stayed with it,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We knew we were better than that. The shots we were getting, we were missing layups and wide-open 3s. We knew if we just stayed with it eventually our skill set would take over and we’d make those shots.”
And did they ever.
Through three quarters the Cavs made just 3 of their first 21 tries from deep before launching and hitting 8 straight bombs to pass the Pacers on the scoreboard and put them away down the stretch.
“This team doesn’t have any fear because we trust each other,” Love said. “We give ourselves a chance to win every night and we play a beautiful brand of basketball.”
Jarrett Allen recorded his 28th double-double – 15 points and 17 rebounds – of the season while adding a pair of blocked shots. Allen tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, marking his third-consecutive half with a double-double to become the first Cav to do that in 25 years.
The win pushed the Cavs to 33-21, and into the third slot in the Eastern Conference standings.
Despite still being down two starters in Lauri Markkanen and All-Star Darius Garland, Bickerstaff has his team believing they can beat anybody on any given night with whomever they are able to put on the floor, and that is special.
“If your belief wavers then your consistency will waver and you’ll never give yourself a chance,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s why we stay with it.”
To preach belief is easy, to live it is the hard part, but not for these Cavs.
“With this group, because of the support they have from one another, it’s easy,” Bickerstaff said. “There’s nobody in that locker room who feels like their teammate doesn’t want them to do the right thing. They keep picking each other up, keep patting each other on the butt, keep supporting one another. So, if you miss 10 in a row, no one’s going to yell at you and tell you don’t do it.”