DALLAS, TX--- WHAT. A. GAME. The Cavaliers were down by as much as 20 points, but would end up defeating the Mavericks in Dallas 113-110 Wednesday night, the Cavs were coming off a gritty 109-95 win over the Bulls in Chicago Saturday night. The Cavs also came in defeating Dallas in 3 of the last 4 meetings, holding Dallas under 100 in all 3 victories. The Cavs advance to an astounding 5-1 in their last 6 games since December 16th.
The Mavericks were leading for what seemed to be the whole game, the story of the majority of it was the Mavericks leading, the Cavs cutting the lead down, then the Mavericks leading again, so on and so forth. Dallas led by as much of 20, and they were led by the NBA's leader in PPG Luka Doncic with 39 points, Doncic controlled the majority of the first half, the absence of All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell was notable. One payer that was originally listed as questionable who had a great performance was Caris LeVert, LeVert was outstanding, scoring 29 points off the bench, 14 of those points coming in the 4th quarter, that included a a key bucket with 2:03 left in the game to put the Cavs up 107-105. The 4th quarter comeback was something special, the Cavs outscored the Mavericks 31-20 in the 4th quarter, outscoring Dallas 59-41 in the 2nd half, whatever head coach JB Bickerstaff gave the Cavs at halftime, let's get some more. A major factor was the Cavs out rebounding the Mavericks 67-45. With the absence of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley, the Cavs have done a great job in stepping up as a team , and one player that stepped up BIG time was our big man, Jarrett Allen. Allen had a monster double-double with 24 points and 23 rebounds, also going 6-6 from the free throw line. From beyond the arc, it was, as always Georges Niang making 4 of his 8 long balls attempted, scoring 16 points. The Cavs had 3 players who scored 20+, the 3rd was Isaac Okoro, who has been one of many bright spots during this injury riddled season for the Cavs, Okoro scored a season high 22 pts while shooting 54% from the field.
The Cavs will have a happy plane ride home from Dallas, as they will host the Milwaukee Bucks from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse at 7:30 pm.