Cleveland: Channing Frye has been excused from the Cavaliers to attend his father’s funeral. Frye missed Friday’s game against the Miami Heat, and he is expected to miss Saturday’s home game against the Charlotte Hornets.
It has been a difficult couple of months for Frye, who lost both his father and mother within a month. His father died on Thanksgiving.
Frye leads the league in 3-point shooting at 48 percent. His 37 3-pointers rank third on the team behind Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. Frye will likely be back when the Cavs host the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday.
Delly 2.0
DeAndre Liggins started his second consecutive game at shooting guard for the Cavs in place of J.R. Smith, who remains sidelined with a hyperextended knee. Coach Tyronn Lue said Smith could return Saturday against the Hornets, but Liggins is taking full advantage of his chance.
Liggins is limited offensively, but the Cavs have enough scoring. Lue likes the tenacity Liggins brings defensively and likened him to Matthew Dellavedova, who signed for $39 million with the Milwaukee Bucks last summer.
“We’ve talked to him about that, having a Delly role,” Lue said. “Liggs can handle the basketball, he’s a decent 3-point shooter, which he’s working to develop because when he was at OKC, that was kind of like his struggles, shooting the basketball.
“He really worked on his shot, really developed a good 3-point shot, so for him to just step in and play hard and give us defensive intensity like Delly did would be great for us.”
Lue emphasized throughout last season’s title run that when teams win, everyone benefits eventually. That includes gritty role players like Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson, who both signed huge contracts.
“Delly got his bag off being that pit bull,” Thompson said. “Shoot, you can say that about myself. He got a nice bag as part of a puzzle. You need those guys. You need those guys to have a deep run, whether it’s the playoffs or to build something special for the long-term. You need those kind of guys that are going to be scrappy and not really give too much [care] about the stats, just how they can impact a game.”
Dribbles
• The Cavs began the night with four players ranked in the top 20 in 3-point percentage: Frye, Iman Shumpert, Love and Irving. Shumpert’s 45 percent is easily a career high. Before this season, his best year from 3 was when he shot 40 percent during his second year in the league.
• Heat center Hassan Whiteside is averaging 17.6 points and an NBA-best 14.7 rebounds, but coach Erik Spoelstra is still working on getting Whiteside to play hard every night. “Hassan needs to understand what he has to bring every night. If he’s not giving 100 percent on every possession, he’s doing a disservice to us and to himself.”
• James began Friday 26 points shy of passing Elvin Hayes (27,313) for ninth place on the all-time scoring list.
• The Cavs have made at least 20 3-pointers in a game three times this season. They never did it in a regular-season game before this season.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.