CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Cleveland’s two young guards put on a mid-range show Wednesday night, but it was the Clippers barrage from deep that won the night.
LA bottomed 20 from downtown as the Clippers rolled to a 121-99 victory Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“We gave up too many uncontested threes in the second half,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Give Paul George a lot of credit – he made a lot of contested threes. They’re a good team. We didn’t defend the three-point line to give ourselves a shot and we didn’t create enough opportunities from behind the three-point line to give ourselves a shot.”
Sexton and Garland combined to score 50 – Sexton 27 and Garland 23.
The duo shot 22 of 39 from the field but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with the hot-shooting Clippers.
“I think Paul George had more threes, from an individual standpoint, than our entire team,” Garland said.
He was right.
George hit eight 3s all by himself, twice as many as the Cavs, who attempted 10 of them, made as a team.
“We have to do a better job generating threes and we played into their hands,” Bickerstaff said.
Bickerstaff’s point was that the Clippers were happy to allow the Cavs mid-range floaters and drives into the paint while they unloaded all night from deep.
“It’s hard to make a living shooting a lot of floaters,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s what they forced us into tonight.”
Sexton and Garland each made their only tries from 3.
Cedi Osmond hit 1 of 2 and Taurean Prince 1 of 3 but that was all Cleveland could generate beyond the arc.
11 Clippers launched a 3 and seven hit at least one of them while six Cavs total attempted one.
The disparity from deep led to a 61-12 scoring advantage for the Clippers and allowed them to pull away in the second half.
“I don’t think we win many games shooting all twos,” Garland said.
Now the challenge going forward for the Cavs is finding the right opportunities to take more of them.
“Just taking the open ones when they’re given,” Sexton said when asked how they can remedy the problem. “And looking for them more often.
“We just gotta make sure we’re looking for them and taking the right ones.”
George led all scorers with 36 points. He ended the third quarter by banking home another deep 3 at the horn to make it 88-74 with 12 minutes to play.
“PG started getting going in the second half and took off from there,” Garland said.
Kawhi Leonard added 24, hitting 3 of 6 from 3 for the visitors, who wrapped up a six-game road trip.
Overall Los Angeles hit 55.7% from the field, including 20 of 34 from 3, in the win.
The Clippers shot a blistering 63.2% in the opening quarter, including hitting 6 of their first 9 tries from 3 and they started off by hitting 10 of their first 11 from the field, to open up a 33-25 lead after 1. George and Leonard had 10 apiece while Sexton also dropped in 10 for the home team.
Cleveland used an 18-6 run to take a 41-39 lead in the second quarter, but it was short lived.
LA cooled off temporarily, hitting just 5-23 from the field spanning the first and second quarters before ending the half on a 9-3 run to head to the locker room up 52-49, including a baseline turnaround from Nicolas Batum at the buzzer.
A 9-0 spurt to start the second half helped the Clippers extend to a 12-point lead, 61-49 and the Cavs never fully recovered. The Clippers outscored the Cavs 69-50 in the final 24 minutes.
“I don’t think we played bad,” Sexton said. “I think we just ran out of gas at the end.”