CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Calling it a “must win” earlier in the day, Collin Sexton did all he could to help end the Cavaliers miserable slide.
His teammates did too.
Lamar Stevens received a feed from Sexton, took two steps and slammed it home with 4.1 seconds remaining to give the Cavaliers a 112-111 victory Tuesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Tuesday night, ending their 10-game losing streak.
“It’s my first game-winner, ever,” Stevens said.
It was the first win in 22 days for the injury plagued Cavs, who trailed 111-107 with 1:51 remaining before scoring the game's final 5 points.
“The best part about that game is when you go up and down the stat sheet, literally everybody who played contributed to winning that game,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “That’s what made it even better and even sweeter, although they all taste sweet at this point.”
Sexton, who pulled the Cavs within 111-110 with a floater with just over a minute to play, was sensational scoring 29 points to go with five assists. He made nine of 16 shots from the floor, including 3-5 from beyond the arc.
“That one broke the ice,” Sexton said of Stevens' dunk. “He came up big.”
Stevens finished with eight points, four rebounds and a pair of assists in just under 16 minutes off the bench as the Cavs could exhale for the first time in weeks.
“Winning boosts confidence within everybody,” Stevens said. “When you haven’t won in a while you don’t want it to keep happening, so getting a win will definitely boost the morale of everybody.”
Darius Garland added 17 while Jarrett Allen finished with a double-double, 13 points and 14 rebounds. Dylan Windler had 15, including hitting all five of his tries from deep, off the bench for Cleveland.
“I’d been struggling a little bit seeing them go in. I’ve had a lot of shots look good, feel good that haven’t really gone in so I always say the law of averages is a scary thing when you’re not hitting shots,” Windler said. “It was just a matter of time. I’m going to keep shooting them when I’m open, stay confident and try to carry this momentum of seeing some shots go in into the next few games.”
Cedi Osman, replaced in the starting-5 by Dean Wade, scored 11. Wade scored 5 points and had a pair of rebounds and assists in just over 20 minutes.
Trae Young, who was limited to 9-27 from the field, finished with 28 but handed out 12 assists. Kevin Huerter added 22 in for Atlanta in the loss.
Cleveland’s bench outscored the Hawks 40-25.
The Cavs finally got hot from deep and hit 15 of 28 from three, the most in a game since late January.
Sexton, who was not named to the All-Star team Tuesday, scored 15 in the opening quarter that saw the Cavs lead 28-27 through 12 minutes and he ad the rest of the team didn't let up.
“It was one of those wins that was much needed” Sexton said. “Everybody pretty much stepped up, everyone showed up tonight.”
Cleveland used a 16-0 run to build a 13-point lead in the second quarter, 44-31 thanks to hot hands from deep that saw the Cavs make seven of their first nine threes after an abysmal 8-35 effort Sunday night against Oklahoma City.
The Cavs went to the locker room in front 58-55 – their first halftime advantage since Feb. 5.
Hawks forward John Collins did not return in the second half after taking a hit to the head late in the second quarter. He was evaluated for a concussion and finished with 13 points, three rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes.
Garland hit a running floater at the buzzer to tie the game for the Cavs at 84 after 3 but they saved their best play of the night for the closing seconds.