The Cleveland Cavaliers will look to continue their success at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday when they open a season-long six-game homestand against the Indiana Pacers.
The Cavaliers salvaged a split of their two-game swing through Texas with a 105-90 victory at Dallas on Wednesday. The win was just their second in their last 10 road games.
Donovan Mitchell scored 27 of his team-high 34 points before halftime to pace six Cleveland players in double digits.
Mitchell has reached the 30-point plateau in 14 of his 25 games this season. He also drained six 3-pointers on Wednesday, marking the 10th time this campaign that he has made at least five in a game.
“We played the full 48 minutes,” Mitchell said. “I think as a group, we’ve been up and let teams back in. You can say we let them back in, but we responded to continuous pressure. They shoot the hell out of the ball. You know they’re going to hit shots, but it’s how we respond to that and playing through adversity. You look at us up and down, and we really did a lot of really good things on the defensive end, and obviously offensively we were able to dissect them throughout the game.”
Lamar Stevens recorded career-high totals in points (18) and rebounds (11). Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley scored 14 points apiece, Darius Garland had 12 and Caris LeVert added 11 off the bench.
Defensively, the Cavaliers collected five steals and held Dallas to just 39.2 percent shooting from the floor.
“What we do, when we do it right, travels,” Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Defense goes everywhere. With us, our defense sets the tone for everything else we do.”
Mitchell and Co. now return home, where the Cavaliers sport a 12-2 record this season.
The Pacers salvaged a split of their four-game homestand with a 125-119 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.
Tyrese Haliburton scored 29 points versus the Warriors, two days removed from a dismal 0-for-9 shooting performance from the floor — and 0-for-6 effort from 3-point range — in Indiana’s 87-82 setback to the Miami Heat.
“I’ve just got some great people in my life,” Haliburton said of his bounce-back performance. “… Great people in this locker room, great vets and coaches that just stayed on me to just play basketball, play free.”
Haliburton made 9 of 17 shots from the floor and 5 of 10 attempts from 3-point range against the Warriors.
Rookie Bennedict Mathurin went 8 of 14 and 4 of 7, respectively, to highlight his 24-point performance off the bench.
“He’s got a nose for the ball,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of Mathurin. “He’s got a real sense for the basket. (Tuesday) in practice, we worked on some things relative to his rhythm on his 3s, looked at some film today.
“He’s great because he applies it immediately. He’s very much into self-discovery and getting better.”
Garland helped Cleveland complete a four-game season series sweep of Indiana in 2021-22 after scoring a then-career-high 41 points and adding 13 assists in the Cavaliers’ 127-124 victory on March 8. He has since scored 51 points in Cleveland’s 129-124 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Nov. 13.
–Field Level Media
