Mavericks at Cavaliers
Kevin Love is settling in during his third season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and provided the best-scoring first quarter in the history of the NBA earlier this week. Love poured in an eye-popping 34 points over the first 12 minutes against Portland and looks to follow up a 40-point performance when Cleveland hosts the woeful Dallas Mavericks on Friday.
Love was 11-of-14 from the field, including 8-of-10 from 3-point range, during Wednesday's 137-125 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers and fell just three points shy of the record for any quarter, held by Golden State guard Klay Thompson. Love's outburst fueled Cleveland's 46-point opening quarter and his personal performance sent the team's bench and the home fans into a frenzy. "I'm not trying to be nonchalant about it, but sometimes when you're in it you don't necessarily feel it," Love said afterward. "There was nothing out of the ordinary as far as our play-calling and our flow of the game. I just felt like guys were finding me." The Mavericks dropped seven straight games after suffering a 124-104 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday and possess the worst record in the NBA.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), FSN Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (2-12): Power forward Dirk Nowitzki (Achilles) returned to the lineup after an eight-game absence and scored 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting in 20 minutes. "It was good to be out there again," Nowitzki said afterward. "My conditioning is lacking a little bit right now. I was a little tired out there but at least my body felt fine, and that's all that matters." Small forward Harrison Barnes emerged as the team's go-to guy during Nowitzki's absence and he scored 22 points against the Clippers for his eighth 20-point outing of the campaign.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (11-2): Love raised his scoring average to 21.8 with his stellar performance that marked his first 40-point outing since he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2013-14. Fellow forward LeBron James contributed 31 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds and set up Love for open 3-pointers numerous times during the big opening-quarter splurge. "Obviously, we had a huge hot hand," James told reporters of Love. "That was lightning. We just kept giving him the ball and he kept knocking them down."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Cavaliers won the past four meetings.
2. James owns 44 career triple-doubles and ranks 17th in NBA history after breaking a tie with Hall of Famer Guy Rodgers with Wednesday's performance.
3. Dallas is just 1-8 on the road, with the victory coming against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 8.