The Cleveland Cavaliers will search for their seventh consecutive win Monday night time once they host the slumping San Antonio Spurs.
Cleveland improved to 6-0 in February with a 97-89 dwelling defeat of the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
The stout defensive exhibiting marked the Cavaliers’ sixth recreation holding an opponent to fewer than 90 factors this season, as they proceed to boast the league’s high scoring protection at 105.9 factors allowed per recreation.
“We could have easily chalked this one up (as a loss),” Cleveland star Donovan Mitchell mentioned after the win. “… We just weren’t making shots, we weren’t getting back on defense. And then for us to come in at the half, make the adjustments and hold them to, was it 40 points in the second half?
“It just speaks to our will to win this whole week, just different things and the way we’ve won this week in different ways. I think it just shows what we’re capable of and different guys stepping up every night.”
Mitchell completed with 29 factors and 10 assists in opposition to the Bulls.
His 26.9 factors per recreation lead Cleveland for the season, however over the course of the Cavaliers’ present profitable streak, Darius Garland has stepped as much as lead the group with 32 factors Feb. 2 in opposition to Memphis; 24 factors Feb. 5 at Indiana; and matching Jarrett Allen’s 23 factors Feb. 6 vs. Washington.
Allen additionally scored a team-high 20 factors Feb. 8 in opposition to Detroit, the primary in a present, three-game stretch of 20-point, 10-rebound double-doubles that prolonged with Saturday’s 23 factors and 10 boards.
Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff praised the group’s collective efforts on Saturday, saying that within the NBA, “The competition is formidable … every night, no matter what your record or your opponent’s record may be.”
Monday’s contest places that idea to the take a look at, as San Antonio limps into Cleveland using a 12-game dropping streak after its 125-106 defeat Saturday at Atlanta.
The blowout loss got here one night time after dropping a 138-131 determination in double-overtime at Detroit. The recreation in opposition to the Cavaliers marks the halfway level of the Spurs’ annual rodeo highway journey.
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San Antonio was energetic eventually week’s commerce deadline amid the nine-game highway swing, buying Devonte’ Graham from Charlotte, who scored 31 factors off the bench in Detroit.
“Optimistic about it,” Graham advised the San Antonio Express-News about becoming a member of the Spurs. “I have always been good at adjusting. Grateful to be around this franchise, a legendary coach (Gregg Popovich) and this young group.”
San Antonio additionally added Khem Birch in a commerce that moved Jakob Poeltl — a part of the deal that despatched Kawhi Leonard to Toronto in 2018 — again to the Raptors. Birch has not performed since Dec. 29.
Keldon Johnson, San Antonio’s main scorer on the season at 21.8 factors per recreation, has scored a minimum of 21 factors in his final three appearances after ending with 25 Saturday in Atlanta.
