Cavaliers shoot poorly, but still beat Pelicans
CLEVELAND -- LeBron James scored 26 points and Channing Frye added 14 off the bench and the Cleveland Cavaliers escaped with a 90-82 victory Monday night against the New Orleans Pelicans on a night they struggled shooting.
Kevin Love scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds before departing for the locker room late in the fourth quarter because the Cavs said he was ill. He shot just 5 of 19 from the floor and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts.
The Cavs' starting backcourt of DeAndre Liggins and Jordan McRae combined to shoot just 2 of 10 in 34 minutes, and neither appeared in the fourth quarter. The Cavs shot 37.8 percent -- one of their worst-shooting nights of the season.
All Cavs players not named Frye were a combined 0 for 17 shooting threes when coach Tyronn Lue inserted James Jones with 2:32 left in the third and the Cavs trailing 65-61. Jones played just eight minutes, but made his first 3-point attempt, then followed it up with a defensive poke away that forced a turnover and an assist to James at the other end.
Rookie Kay Felder entered two minutes into the fourth and promptly made his first basket. He scored 12 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. In two games since he erupted for 33 points in a Development League game, Felder has averaged 10.5 points after averaging 5.4 for the season.
Anthony Davis scored 20 points and grabbed 17 rebounds and rookie Buddy Hield scored 20 points for the Pelicans, who had their four-game winning streak snapped on a night both teams missed plenty of open looks. New Orleans shot a season-worst 36.4 percent.
The Cavs had so few healthy bodies that Lue had to scrap the team's traditional morning shootaround, instead electing for a pregame walk-through. He has done it a couple of times this season and conceded he may do it more often moving forward. On this night, however, only Felder and Frye shot better than 50 percent.
James shot 9 of 21, grabbed seven rebounds and passed for six assists. But he struggled establishing a rhythm until the fourth quarter on a night Kyrie Irving missed his second game with a right hamstring injury. The team is still classifying it as "tightness" in the hamstring and Lue wouldn't offer a timetable for his return, even though he initially didn't believe Irving would miss any time at all with the injury.
NOTES: Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry acknowledged the team is negotiating with F Donatas Montiejunas on a contract but had no further comment. "He's officially not on our team," Gentry said. "I'm not sure I can even say anything about it legally. I'll just leave it at that." ... Gentry believes the Pelicans have done a better job lately of converting turnovers into points after struggling to capitalize on them earlier in the season. "It's so important if you cause 15-20 turnovers then you've got to have in the 20s in points to make it really work," he said. ... G/F Mike Dunleavy missed his second consecutive game with a sore right ankle.