The Wine and Gold were hoping to rebound Sunday against New Orleans after a Saturday blowout loss to a Toronto Raptors squad without Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakim. However, Sunday it was the Cavaliers who were short-handed from the jump as they were missing Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, Larry Nance Jr, and Dylan Windler.
Cavaliers did get off to a fast start knocking down 7-12 from downtown while also maintaining a lead with a lineup at times consisting of Cedi Osman, Taurean Prince, Lamar Stevens, Broderic Thomas, and Mfiondu Kabengele which is honestly a more impressive feat. Kevin Love was able to turn back the clock leading the Cavaliers with 9 points while his doppelgänger Dean Wade backed him up with 8 as the Cavaliers led 39-29 lead after 1.
“We really needed to get off to a good start and they brought it from the beginning, competed for the entire game so I was proud of their effort,” said coach JB Bickerstaff. “They showed that it mattered to them, they really went out and scrapped, they gave it everything they had and you can live with that.”
Zion Williamson started to wake up in the 2nd quarter with 17 points to finish the first half with 25 as New Orleans cut the Cavaliers led to 68-62 at the break. Dean Wade continued his sweet shooting from behind the arc connecting on 4-5 to lead the Cavs with 16 first half points. Isaiah Hartenstein tallied 10 points and 4 boards while dealing with foul trouble.
The start of the 3rd saw the Pelicans come back and tie the game but Isaac Okoro started to right the ship for the Wine and Gold as he passed his career high with 19 points with still the 4th quarter to play. Cavaliers held on to a 94-90 lead heading into the final stanza. Wine and Gold however did cough the ball up 6 times in the final 6 minutes while Matthew Dellavedova rested up for the first quarter.
The Wine and Gold fuel tank emptied out in the 4th as Zion and Brandon Ingram started to take over and finally pull ahead in the final minutes. Williamson literally put the exclamation point on their comeback with a breakaway dunk in with 15 seconds left as the Pelicans took down the Cavaliers 116-109.
“I thought we played well honestly, I thought we moved the ball well, I thought we created open looks for one another, they just didn’t fall,” said Bickerstaff. “Playing against a team that has weapons like Zion and Brandon, those guys are hard to guard. You gotta make shots to keep up with them and I thought tonight we just didn’t make enough shots.”
Dean Wade led the Cavs with a career high 21 while he was back up by Isaac Okoro with a career high of his own with 19 points and Kevin Love finished with 19 as well. Cedi Osman led the short-staffed second unit with 15 off the bench with 7 assists. Delly meantime handed out 10 assists while finishing with 7 points.
“We talked about who we are as a group more so than individual opportunities,” said Bickerstaff. “We didn’t like the way we start that game yesterday and that was the guys who played and the ones who didn’t play. So I think everything tonight came out with the mindset that we were going to compete for 48 minutes. We were gonna lay it all out on the line together.”
Zion proved to be too strong to stop as the New Orleans big fella finished off a 38 point, 9 rebound night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Ingram tallied 27.
Cavaliers back on the court Wednesday night in Charlotte against the Hornets tipping off at 7 PM.