CLEVELAND - Cedi Osman had his best game of the season on a special night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
As the crowd celebrated Turkish Heritage Night in the home arena, Osman scored a tied-career-high 29 points to help the Cleveland Cavaliers post a dominating 122-99 victory over a depleted Los Angeles Clippers squad.
Osman even had a chance to break his career-best in the Cavs' last possession near the end of the game, but even Osman said in Sunday's postgame presser that he told Caris LeVert to run out the clock.
"I knew that I tied my career high, but at the end of the game, it was a 30-point game...I didn't see any reason to just go in and score two points. I felt like it would disrespectful towards [the] Clippers...It was a fun game."
Osman, who did manage a career-best seven 3-pointers (out of seven attempts) in an 11-of-13 performance from the field, also touched on his performance coming on a night of celebration of his heritage.
"I'm really happy it happened on this night," said Osman. "It definitely had a big meaning for me tonight."
While Osman led the way for the Cavs in scoring, the team certainly had no shortage of offense. Every active player for Cleveland managed at least one field goal, and eight players (including Osman) scored eight or more points. The team also had 10 players drain at least one 3-pointer, including center Jarrett Allen, who achieved his first downtown make since November 2021.
"Felt good to finally see it go in," said a laughing Allen after the game.
Among the top offensive players were Darius Garland (16 points, 10 assists), Allen (15 points), Caris LeVert (12 points), and Donovan Mitchell, who totaled nine of his 11 points in the first quarter of his first game back after missing five of the Cavs' last six with a groin injury.
With Mitchell only playing 20 minutes, Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff explained an intent to ease Mitchell back into play, combined with the ease of the Cavs' win over L.A.: "[Mitchell]s minutes] were gonna be lighter. We weren't expecting them to be this light, but he was going to be lighter, a little bit."
As for the rest of the team, Bickerstaff knew his players were on the right track as they achieved a good start defensively.
"There was an intensity defensively tonight, for sure, that set the tone and gave me confidence that the guys were ready to go."
The Cavaliers were facing a Clippers team that did not play perennial stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the second half of the team's back-to-back (along with a trio of players that included John Wall and Robert Covington) and held the visitors to a 2-of-19 (10.5%) shooting performance.
