Cedi Osman ties career high with 29 points, Cavs rout Clippers
CLEVELAND(AP) — Cedi Osman tied his career high with 29 points and matchedthe franchise record by making all seven of his 3-pointers as theCleveland Cavaliers built a 40-point lead on their way to a 122-99rout of the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night.
All-Starstarter Donovan Mitchell had 11 points in his return for Clevelandafter missing three games with a strained groin. The Cavaliersnever trailed and took their largest lead of the season at 82-42 onJarrett Allen’s first 3-pointer since Nov. 5, 2021.
“It was agreat feeling, everybody was sharing the moment with me,” Osmansaid. “We played great offensively, and it was a great game foreverybody. We’ve got such a good group of guys who support eachother at all times.”
The Clippers,who had won five in a row, opted not to dress Kawhi Leonard, PaulGeorge and Reggie Jackson, all of whom played Saturday in Atlanta.Officially, George and Leonard did not play because of right kneetrouble and Jackson has a sore right Achilles.
Turkeynational team member Osman made 11 of 13 shots on Turkish HeritageNight at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. He joined Kyrie Irving and MoWilliams as the only Cavaliers to go 7 of 7 beyond the arc in agame.
“That’s whatTurkish Heritage Night will do for you,” Allen said, laughing.“Every single thing, except for his layups, went in. He dideverything he was supposed to all night.”
DariusGarland collected 16 points and 10 assists, and Allen had 15 pointsand eight rebounds for Cleveland, which has the best home record inthe East at 21-5.
Theperformance was in stark contrast to the Cavaliers’ 120-114 homeloss to Golden State nine days earlier, when the Warriors satStephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and AndrewWiggins.
“Tonight wasa similar situation, but we took it serious,” Osman said. “We knewGolden State was missing a lot of pieces and learned a tough lessonfrom it.”
BrandonBoston Jr. scored 24 points and Moses Brown had 13 points and 16rebounds for Los Angeles. Rookie Jason Preston from Ohio Universityhad season highs of 12 points and eight assists.
The Clippersare 1-1 on a six-game road trip that ends Feb. 6 in Brooklyn. Theymissed 16 of their first 17 3-pointers and finished 2 of 19.
“I had acouple of friends and family here, so it was a good night, forsure,” Preston said. “The more I was out there, I kept getting alittle more confident.”
WELCOME BACK
Clipperscoach Tyronn Lue took the Cavaliers to three straight NBA Finalsappearances, winning their lone championship in 2016. F Kevin Loveand Osman are the only remaining players who played for Lue.
“When youlose LeBron (James) and Kyrie (Irving), usually it’s going to takea long time to get back,” said Lue, who went 128-83 in four seasonswith the Cavaliers. “To be where they are now, they’ve done a greatjob putting together this team.
“It startedwith the trade for Jarrett Allen, which was out of this world, andgetting Donovan Mitchell this year took them to the nextlevel.”
TIP-INS
Clippers: GTerance Mann had the sole assist by a Los Angeles starter in thefirst half. … F Marcus Morris (bruised rib) missed his thirdconsecutive game and F Robert Covington (personal reasons) sat outhis second. G John Wall (abdominal soreness) last played on Jan. 13against Denver. … Two-way C Brown was recalled from Ontario in theG League.
Cavaliers:Love (low back spasms) was inactive for the third straight game.The 34-year-old has missed six contests with the injury since thestart of December. … Cleveland must win its next game to finish awinning record for the fourth consecutive month. It hasn’t starteda season with four straight winning months since its 2015-2016title campaign.
UPNEXT
Clippers:Visit Chicago on Tuesday night.
Cavaliers:Host Miami on Tuesday night.
Link to this article:https://www.brazilv.com/post/2135.html