Cavaliers 105, Clippers 94
Kevin Love had 24 points and nine rebounds as host Cleveland cruised past Los Angeles to pick up its 12th straight win, one shy of tying a franchise record.
LeBron James finished with 23 points and nine assists for the Cavaliers, who had a 35-13 advantage in made free throws. J.R. Smith made four 3-pointers en route to 16 points and matched a career high with five steals as Cleveland won its eighth in a row at home.
Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 16 points while Jamal Crawford added 13. Chris Paul had 10 points and nine assists and DeAndre Jordan recorded 14 rebounds for Los Angeles, which made 5-of-22 3-pointers while falling to 2-3 on its eight-game road trip.
Love had 10 points and five rebounds in the first quarter to help Cleveland take a 30-20 lead and James poured in 13 points in the second as the advantage grew to 65-42 at the break. The Clippers stymied their own comeback bid by picking up four technical fouls early in the third, including two straight and an ejection for Matt Barnes midway through the period, which led to a free throw for Kyrie Irving and a 75-53 lead.
Irving's only field goal of the game was a 3-pointer with less than five minutes to go in the third to make it 87-57 and Cleveland was up 31 after another triple by Smith in the waning seconds of the stanza. The Los Angeles reserves had a late 18-0 run and kept the Cavaliers' second unit from recording a field goal over the final eight-plus minutes, but Cleveland had no issues winning its eighth straight against the Western Conference.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Clippers played without SG J.J. Redick (back spasms), who was also named as one of eight participants in the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest as part of the All-Star festivities in Brooklyn next weekend. ... Cleveland was 5-of-18 from the floor in the third quarter while making 17-of-20 free throws. ... C Timofey Mozgov had 12 points and nine rebounds and C Tristan Thompson added nine points and 10 boards off the bench as the Cavaliers recorded a 52-43 advantage on the glass.