Cavaliers grind their way to 105-98 win over Sixers; three takeaways

3. Winning the fatigue battle

The bottom line of Saturday’s game remains this: the Cavs could have found a lot of excuses to put up their second straight loss. They got off to a slow start, they were without Kevin Love, they didn’t make it home until after 4 a.m. on Saturday.

Regardless of all of that, however, they found a way to win their 19th game this season. They were down 13-3 to begin the game, but then answered with a 29-6 run. Even in the fourth quarter, they found a way to push the pace down the stretch, (which as Lue pointed out, “opened things up for our shooters”) and held the Sixers scoreless for nearly two minutes to end the game.

Lue on how the Cavs are able to push pace in the 4Q of games pic.twitter.com/bmzSN5jge6

— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) December 10, 2017

A win like this in October would have been unthinkable. But it was James who summed up best just how big it is for the Cavs to get a victory like Saturday’s.

“For us to come out here and be professionals– still got to be professionals, nobody’s going to feel sorry for you– for us to show up and have our All-Star power forward out, have so many guys out, everyone just gave what they had and we were able to have a lot of resolve tonight and get that win.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4