CLEVELAND: The team that has grown accustomed to the dramatic rally and the kid who has carried them there so many nights finally wore down Wednesday.
Against a lousy New Orleans Hornets team that was playing its third road game in as many nights, the Cavs ran out of both magic and gas. Their 89-84 loss sends them into the All-Star break with a sour taste following a surprisingly successful first half to the season.
Kyrie Irving set a career high with 11 assists, but equaled his career low with six points on a miserable 2-of-13 shooting night. He wasn’t alone. Daniel Gibson shot 1-of-9 and Alonzo Gee was 4-of-13 off the bench. In all, the Cavs shot just 32 percent, 22 percent on 3-pointers (6-of-27) and 65 percent at the free-throw line (24-of-37).
Antawn Jamison had 22 points. No one else had more than 13.
It was particularly frustrating for Irving, who carried the Cavs to fourth-quarter victories in each of their past two games. On Wednesday, he was just 1-of-5 from the floor in the fourth quarter.
“It was one of those nights where you look at the ball and say, ‘Go in for me once,’ ” Irving said. “I think I hit one jump shot tonight. It happens; part of the game.”
The Cavs never led, but they still had a chance to win it late despite their shooting woes.
They were behind by two points for nearly three consecutive minutes during the fourth quarter and behind by four points for eight minutes in part because both teams were ice cold shooting the ball.
The Cavs opened the fourth shooting 3-of-15, but the Hornets couldn’t pull away because they began just 2-of-11. Marco Belinelli’s 3-pointer to make it 81-74 finally gave the Hornets a little cushion with 1:04 remaining, and the Cavs’ night was over.
“One of those nights where it wasn’t meant to be,” Cavs coach Byron Scott said. “The comeback didn’t happen tonight, but I thought our guys competed and played hard, we just didn’t have it in us.”
After cutting the Hornets’ lead to 71-70 on a Ryan Hollins free throw with 8:34 remaining, the Cavs missed 12 consecutive shots and turned the ball over three times. Irving had three of those misses on shots he normally makes. Scott said Irving told him his legs were tired, but Irving insisted he wasn’t tired.
“I just couldn’t hit my shots,” he said. “My shots were literally going in and out.”
As has been the case far too often lately, the Cavs dug themselves an early hole with a sluggish start. The Hornets, who entered tied for the second-worst record in the league and playing for the third consecutive night, raced out to a 10-point lead late in the first quarter. The lead was 12 late in the third quarter and 10 entering the fourth. Scott blames the early deficits on the defense allowing opponents to get too many easy layups and uncontested shots early in games.
“Then it seems like the second quarter or second half we home in on what they’re doing and we start playing a little more physical and a little more aggressive. We can’t wait to do that,” he said. “A lot of times when you have a young team, that’s what they do. We have to get out of that mind-set. You come out either on your heels or on your toes. We have to be the team that comes out on our toes a little more.”
When the Cavs reconvene Monday night after the break, their ongoing problems at center will return. Scott benched Semih Erden for the second half and started Ryan Hollins for the third quarter, because Scott didn’t like Erden’s effort.
Hollins split the second half with Tristan Thompson, although Thompson’s problems at the free-throw line (2-of-8) prevented Scott from playing him big minutes in the fourth quarter as he usually does.
The bigger problem at this point is Erden, who has been benched twice now for what Scott deems a lack of effort.
The Hornets’ big men delighted in the Cavs’ post problems. Chris Kaman had 21 points and 13 rebounds and rookie forward Gustavo Ayon had a career-high 17 rebounds. As a result, the Hornets outrebounded the Cavs 56-48.
The Cavs will take a week off now before meeting again Monday night for practice prior to Tuesday’s home game against the Boston Celtics. The loss drops the Cavs to 13-18, which is still a vast improvement over their 8-23 mark through 31 games last season.
“We’re not surprised by where we are right now, we even feel we should be a little bit better,” Scott said.
“I don’t care what people think outside that room. We expect to win.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at http://cavs.ohio.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
