CLEVELAND: The Cavaliers showed some hustle but not a lot of flow as they gifted the Golden State Warriors with a 105-95 win Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
The Cavs gave this one away, treating the basketball as if it were a ticking time bomb with seconds left before explosion.
In all, the Cavs committed a season-high 25 turnovers, many of them unforced, to take a winnable game and turn it into a sure loss.
“I’ve said it before: You turn the ball over twenty-something times and you don’t give yourself much of a chance to win the basketball game,” Cavs coach Byron Scott said. “And it was no different tonight.”
Scott was offering no excuses for the way the Cavs handled the ball when asked if it was a case of his team being fatigued after coming home from an extended road trip and playing back-to-back games on the tail end of it.
“I don’t buy that,” he said. “That’s bull. That’s an excuse and that’s not something we’re going to tolerate. We just lost the game because we were terrible on the offensive end as far as turning the ball over.”
The Warriors converted those turnovers into 23 points and were able to get 17 points on the fastbreak.
“Some of them were just miscues,” Cavs guard Daniel Gibson said. “I think they are things we can correct.”
Miscues they might have been, but they proved costly, especially in the fourth quarter when the Cavs were still very much within striking distance.
With 8:49 left in the game and the Cavs ahead 87-85, they turned the ball over on four of their next five possessions.
The Warriors took advantage with a 9-2 run that made it 94-89 with 4:32 left and the Warriors in possession of what little momentum either team displayed in the game.
It proved to be too late for the Cavs to regain that momentum.
“We lost the game. We were getting great shots out there offensively; they just weren’t falling,” guard Kyrie Irving said.
Irving scored 18 points and had eight rebounds and five assists, but was responsible for six of the team’s turnovers.
Gibson agreed.
“We did what we were supposed to — offensively and defensively,” he said. “We just didn’t take care of the ball.”
And as they were giving the ball up, the game’s leading scorer —Warriors forward David Lee with 29 points — took full advantage of the situation.
Despite having multiple players guard him, Lee dominated the fourth quarter with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
The Cavs had no answers.
“He’s a little unorthodox, I think, and he has a way of getting that ball in the basket,” Scott said. “We obviously didn’t do a very good job. He took over the game in the last quarter.”
Gibson said that taking care of the ball is something that can’t be worked out in a drill, but will have to be done so on the court.
Scott is still searching.
“I’m trying to figure it out, why it is that we’re turning the ball over at this high rate,” he said. “And I ask myself the question if it’s because we’re not a very good passing team or is it because we’re not a very good decision-making team.
“I have to figure that out obviously. We just have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and treating it as important as it is.”
Buzzer beaters
Center Semih Erden tied a career high in points with 14. … Irving’s eight rebounds were a career high.
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Zips blog at http://zips.ohio.com. Follow the Zips on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
