Cavs stomp swooning Celtics to stay perfect at home

In one of the biggest marquee matchups of the season so far, the Cleveland Cavaliers easily handled the swooning Boston Celtics on Friday night.  Cleveland remained undefeated at home with a perfect 19-0 record as they routed the defending NBA champions by a 98-83 score.

LeBron James was dominant as he scored 38 points to lead all scorers, while also contributing seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocked shots.  He was a formidable presence on the defensive end as well, making life miserable for Boston’s leading scorer Paul Pierce.  Pierce was held to a season low 11 points,  and he only managed to reach double digits after James came out of the game in the fourth quarter with the outcome all but decided.  After the game, LeBron expressed his pleasure with the Cavs dominating win:

"We want to continue to protect our home court and we want to continue to get better. Tonight I think we got better. We don't want to take a step back because we got a big picture and a big goal. You don't want to waste a game. We got really better tonight."

With the Cavs up by 20 in the 4th quarter, the crowd at the Quicken Loans Arena paid their respects to LeBron’s effort with a chant of “M-V-P”.  LeBron deflected this praise, as well as credit for Pierce’s struggles, suggesting that it was a team effort:

"You can't continue to give him one look because of how good of a player he is.  My teammates did a good job of letting me know where they were behind me and helping me out. I didn't do it by myself. It was a whole team concept."

On the other side of the floor, Celtics coach Doc Rivers sounded exasperated by his team’s performance and recent struggles on the road following their franchise record 19 game winning streak:

"We have some money in the bank with the 19-game winning streak. We're making a withdrawal we don't want to make right now, but we're still 29-9. This is a tough stretch. I don't like it. But we're going to right the ship. When? I don't know."

Cleveland’s record now stands at 29-6, which has them tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the best mark in the NBA.  They’ll face the Lakers at the Staples Center on January 19th in a possible preview of this year’s NBA finals matchup.