CLEVELAND — On Friday night, the Cavaliers secured their second lopsided win over the Washington Wizards in a span of three days, prevailing 114-90 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavs routed the visiting Wizards 140-101 on Wednesday night amid an offensive outburst. Cleveland set its season highs in points, rebounds (62), assists (37) and offensive rebounds (18). Max Strus scored a game-high 24 points, shooting 6-of-8 from 3-point range.
Well, this time, the Cavs (20-15) turned their rematch against the Wizards (6-28) into a party. During a timeout with 6:16 left to play, injured starting point guard Darius Garland autographed mini-basketballs and tossed them to the crowd.
Cleveland is 13-2 this season against opponents with sub-.500 records. Their 90 points allowed Friday is the second-lowest scoring total they have surrendered this season.
The Cavs remain far from full strength, leaving them vulnerable in any given game without Garland (jaw surgery) and starting forward Evan Mobley (arthroscopic knee surgery).
On the other hand, the Cavs have gone 7-3 since announcing Dec. 15 they would be without Garland for at least a month and without Mobley for approximately six to eight weeks. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell missed four games during the same stretch due to an illness.
Mitchell led the Cavs in Friday's wire-to-wire win with a game-high 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field.
The Cavs shot 41 of 77 (53.2%), including 16 of 33 (a season-high 48.5%) from 3-point range. By comparison, the Wizards shot 35 of 84 (41.7%), including 9 of 30 (30%) on 3-pointers.
The Cavs also outrebounded the Wizards 52-31. Cleveland had 31 assists compared with Washington's 19.
Below is some information about the fourth quarter.
Caris LeVert made a 3-pointer with 10:48 remaining, giving the Cavs a 90-61 lead. The 29-point advantage was Cleveland's largest lead of the night.
The shot also gave LeVert a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. He registered his 10th assist with 11:27 left in the fourth quarter, setting up Max Strus for a 3-pointer. LeVert finished with 11 points and 11 assists.
LeVert has one double-double this season and 14 in his NBA career.
Center Jarrett Allen had a double-double (12 points and 12 rebounds) for the sixth game in a row. The longest double-double streak of his career is seven games.
Below is some information about the third quarter.
The Cavs led 84-59 at the end of the third quarter.
In the third quarter, Cavs All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell eclipsed 20 points. It was his 14th consecutive game with 20-plus points. He had 26 points entering the fourth quarter, and center Jarrett Allen had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The Cavs used a 10-0 run early in the second half to go ahead 62-44 with 8:49 left in the third quarter.
All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell accounted for eight points during the stretch. He made three of his first four shots to start the second half.
Dean Wade and Mitchell made back-to-back 3-pointers with 4:59 and 4:02 left in the third quarter. Those shots boosted the Cavs to a 24-point advantage.
With 3:17 left in the third quarter, a Mitchell free throw extended the difference to 25 points.
Below is some information about the second quarter.
Turnovers — and the Cavs' ability to capitalize on them — played a significant role in the first half.
The Wizards had 11 turnovers, with the Cavs scoring 14 points off those miscues.
The Cavs had seven turnovers, which the Wizards turned into 10 points.
The Cavs held a 52-40 halftime lead. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell led them with 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field. Georges Niang had 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
Center Jarrett Allen was a rebound shy of a double-double through two quarters. He had 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and nine rebounds at halftime. Allen has recorded at least 10 first-half points in five of the last six games.
Washington's Tyus Jones matched Mitchell with 14 points.
On three consecutive Wizards possessions early in the second quarter, Cavs backup guard Sam Merrill drew two charging fouls and recorded a steal. The steal led to a dunk in transition by Caris LeVert, giving the Cavs a 38-28 lead with 9:37 left in the second quarter.
Then Georges Niang made back-to-back 3-pointers, and the Cavs went ahead 44-28 with 8:29 left in the second quarter.
Below is some information about the first quarter.
All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field in the first quarter. He also dished out three assists.
As a team, the Cavs shot 14 of 24 (58.3%) from the floor in the opening quarter. The Wizards were 9 of 18 and led by Tyus Jones' 11 points.
Cavs sixth man Caris LeVert came off the bench with 6:16 remaining in the first quarter and quickly made a driving floater before setting up center Jarrett Allen for a successful layup with a nifty behind-the-back pass.
The Cavs jumped out to a 13-5 lead, prompting the Wizards to call timeout with 9:12 left in the opening quarter.
A 9-0 run by the Cavs began when center Jarrett Allen drove through the lane and delivered a vicious dunk over Daniel Gafford with 10:07 left in the first quarter.
On the next two Cavs possessions, Dean Wade made a 3-pointer and Max Strus converted an alley-oop on a pass from Donovan Mitchell.
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Below is some pregame information.
The Cavs-Wizards rematch will come on the heels of Cleveland announcing Thursday it had reached a buyout agreement with longtime NBA point guard Ricky Rubio , who had been away from the team this entire season while focusing on his mental health.
Rubio also tweeted Thursday his "NBA career has come to an end."
Rubio played for the Utah Jazz during Mitchell's first two NBA seasons with the franchise, and they reunited as members of the Cavs last year.
On Friday morning after the Cavs' shootaround, Mitchell explained Rubio helped him figure out what type of professional player he would become.
"I'm genuinely grateful for him," Mitchell said. "I've told him that a thousand times. He's done so much for myself, for this organization, for the Jazz organization, for everywhere he's been.
"I've been to his house in Spain. I know his family. I know everybody really well, and he's just as genuine as a human as I've ever met."
Mitchell said he wasn't surprised by Rubio's decision to retire, adding he realized Rubio was dealing with something "serious" when he chose to not play for Spain in last summer's FIBA World Cup.
Mitchell said he sent Rubio a text message regarding his retirement and is hopeful his friend experiences "a sense of relief" now.
"It's a hell of a career," Mitchell said, "and I'm happy for him."
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff called Rubio "one of my favorite people to be around in the NBA" and "one of the most unique spirits I've ever been around, period."
Bickerstaff explained how Rubio's presence in Cleveland changed the coach's career.
"I owe Ricky a debt of gratitude that there's only a couple of guys who I could say at this point have had the impact on me that way," Bickerstaff said. "He helped us, in a brief period of time, turn this organization into what you see in front of you.
"We were 22 wins [in the 2020-21 season]. His presence allowed me to coach the team in a certain way where no one was too big to sacrifice. He was a starting point guard his entire career. He was a starting-level point guard when he was with us. But he sacrificed to come off the bench to be a part of this team, and that allowed me to coach the team in a way where nobody was above what was the most important thing — and that was only the team."
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The Cavs have ruled out Garland, Mobley and backup point guard Ty Jerome (ankle).
The Wizards have ruled out backup guard Landry Shamet (hamstring).
The game will be televised locally on Bally Sports Ohio and broadcast on the radio via WTAM (1100-AM), WMMS (100.7-FM) and WNZN (89.1-FM).
The Cavs will continue their homestand with a matchup Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs .
Then the Cavs and Brooklyn Nets will meet Jan. 11 in Paris. It will be Cleveland's first game ever in Europe.
The Cavs will return to Cleveland for meetings Jan. 15 with the Chicago Bulls and Jan. 17 with the Milwaukee Bucks .
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs beat Wizards again thanks to Donovan Mitchell, bench scoring
