I thought this might be a trap game and that's how it looked for three quarters until the Cavs started the 4th with a 24-4 run to put it out of reach with 3:12 to go. Yeah, Neto turned it around.
I give credit to JBB as well. Love and Cedi kind of sucked tonight so in the 4th he went with Neto and Stevens. Huge difference.
Allen did much better against Aybar this time; 13/12/5 for Allen against 14/11/6 for Aybar. Jarrett played him even and that's all we ask.
Okoro hit four 3's! Garland was a +22 and LeVert a +28 in 28 minutes with 13 points, 7 assists, 3 steals, and excellent defense. Caris is kind of on a roll the last few games.
The Suns got a lot of help from their bench. Washington put up 18 shots in 25 minutes. He's got to be the least popular guy on their team. He made 5-for-6 from deep, though. And Landale was very impressive. He's a 27-year-old rookie. He had 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists in just 18 minutes.
Generally when a team goes 14-for-26 on 3's they win, but not tonight. What is it with our 3-point defense? Another game where the opponent shot over 50% from deep. What is going on?
And what's with this spate of missed free throws? 11-for-17 tonight. Fortunately it was not a 1-point game, although after three quarters I thought it would come down to the final shot. Good thing JBB found the right combination (Neto, Garland, LeVert, Stevens, Mobley). Going small worked out really well. By the time Allen and Mitchell came in at the 5:19 mark the 1-point lead had been pushed out to 16.
Very nice win, although it should not have taken until the 4th quarter to decide it. But Washington and Landale came off the bench to score 39 and I didn't see that coming. The Suns got 50 points from their bench after getting 14 on Wednesday.
So we're done with the Suns for this season. We got a break and got to play them twice with Booker out.
The Cavs hit the halfway point on pace for 52 wins. Last year 53 wins got 1st seed in the East. Probably not this year, though.
