Mavericks at Cavaliers
Rajon Rondo is settling in nicely as the point guard for the Dallas Mavericks and he’ll try to help his new team win their fifth straight game Sunday at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rondo is coming off a season-high 29 points in Friday’s win against his former team, the Boston Celtics, and is averaging 17 points in the last six games. The Cavaliers will be without leading scorer LeBron James for another two weeks because of strains in his left knee and lower back.
Cleveland ended a three-game losing streak by beating the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night as Kevin Love returned from a one-game absence due to back spasms and Shawn Marion came back after missing two games with an ankle injury. Marion should be fired up to play against Dallas, where he spent the last five years, including the 2010-11 NBA championship season. The Cavaliers need to prove they can beat a good team without James, as they are 1-3 without him this season.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), FSN Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (24-10): Rondo faced Cleveland as a member of the Celtics in mid-November and posted six points, eight rebounds and 16 assists in the one-point loss. Monta Ellis gives Dallas a formidable backcourt for the Cavaliers to defend, as he and Rondo combined for 51 points against Boston, the most by Dallas starting guards in nearly five years. This is a different Cleveland team than Dirk Nowitzki is used to facing, but he averages 20.1 points in 26 career games against the Cavaliers, his lowest scoring average against any NBA team.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (19-14): Kevin Love scored 27 points against the Hornets to start January on a positive note after a lukewarm month of December in which he averaged 16.3 points, his lowest-scoring month since the 2009-10 season. With James sidelined, this is Love’s time to show he can carry the team, especially with games against the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors on the docket next week. Kyrie Irving bumped up his shot totals the last three games but not his shooting percentage as he’s 30-for-77 in that span.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Nowitzki needs 28 points to pass Moses Malone (27,409) for seventh place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
2. The Mavericks are 9-1 this season when Chandler Parsons scores at least 20 points.
3. The Cavaliers have come back to win eight games when trailing by double figures this season.
PREDICTION: Mavericks 98, Cavaliers 91