CLEVELAND: LeBron James has often called the post-All-Star break portion of the schedule his favorite time of year. He showed why again on Thursday.
James registered his sixth triple-double of the season with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists in the Cavaliers’ 119-104 victory over the New York Knicks. It was James’ 48th career triple-double.
The Cavs remained red-hot during February, improving to 8-1 and surpassing their win total from all of January. James was concerned the All-Star break could disrupt their momentum, but that certainly didn’t happen.
The Cavs stood pat as Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline passed. With few assets left to trade, the Cavs will turn to the buyout market and hope guys like Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut pass through waivers unclaimed. Williams was waived by the Mavericks on Thursday and Bogut is expected to be released after he was traded from Dallas to Philadelphia prior to the deadline.
Kyrie Irving scored 23 points Thursday and Tristan Thompson had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Kyle Korver made six 3-pointers and scored 20 points off the bench and the Cavs were never really threatened by the woeful Knicks in the second half.
A 3-pointer by Channing Frye early in the third gave them their biggest lead of the game at 72-51. The Knicks pulled within 87-79 late in the third, but the Cavs extended the lead again behind big nights from their reserves. Along with Korver, Richard Jefferson scored 14 points and Derrick Williams scored 10.
The fact the Knicks were in Cleveland could’ve made for high drama, but the day passed relatively quietly for both teams. Carmelo Anthony, as expected, stayed put despite rampant trade rumors this season linking him to the Cavs. Anthony scored 20 points Thursday, but needed 25 shots to get there. Courtney Lee scored 25 and Derrick Rose, the subject of trade rumors himself all day Thursday, scored 13.
In the end, General Manager David Griffin and coach Tyronn Lue liked their team as presently constructed.
“We tried a lot of things that didn’t work. It is what it is. But we’re really, really comfortable with the group we had,” Griffin said. “We were not going to do anything of any significance as we said before. I think Ty Lue was pretty clear about the fact that we weren’t going to go do something major. We made calls, certainly. But we weren’t trying to change the shape of the team.”
Whatever ailed the Cavs in January has been resolved this month. They shot 53 percent on Thursday and made 15 3-pointers. They’ll remain home for the rest of the month with home games against division rivals Chicago on Saturday and Milwaukee on Monday before a grueling March schedule that is primarily filled with road games.
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.