The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Dallas Mavericks 127 to 117 on Saturday night.
While the win itself is notable—Cleveland entered the game at 6-7 and Dallas at 7-5—the story was the players the Cavaliers won with.
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Saturday night was Cleveland’s second game in a back-to-back. The Cavs were in Miami on Friday night and lost 133 to 121. With the nationwide domestic ground stop lasting four hours on Friday, travel plans across sports leagues were impacted.
Cleveland’s game finished after the ground stop ended, but the decision had already been made for the Cavaliers to fly back home Saturday morning. The team landed in Cleveland around noon local time, and then had a quick turnaround for Saturday night’s game.
The Cavaliers ruled out all five of their usual starters. James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen were all ruled inactive ahead of the game.
This led Cleveland to start Mario Herzonja, Thomas Bryant, Jaylon Tyson, Tyrese Proctor, and Meleek Thomas against a full-strength Mavericks squad.
Proctor led the way with a triple-double. He finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Hezonja added 22 points, while Bryant had a double-double with 19 points and 11 boards.
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Cleveland’s bench was shallow with only three players used, but they had an impact. Not only did the three eat up necessary minutes, but Norchad Omier had 13 points and eight rebounds, while Craig Porter Jr. added nine points, nine rebounds, and six assists.
Dallas’ 10-point loss against the backups didn’t bring many positives, but six players finished with double-digit points, including all five starters. Kyrie Irving paced the team with 34 points, while star forward Cooper Flagg had 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Cleveland now gets a much-needed day off and returns to action on Monday against the Chicago Bulls. Dallas has its own back-to-back to deal with and will end its three-game road trip on Sunday against the Boston Celtics.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
