Cavs thump Clips to stay perfect at home

The Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a sloppy first half to pull away late and defeat the LA Clippers 112-95 on Friday night at the Quicken Loans Arena. With the victory, Cleveland improved to 22-0 at home and are the only remaining NBA team without a loss in their own building this year. The 22 wins to start the season is the 4th best since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.

Cleveland was sparked by the return from injury of center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who posted a “double/double” in his first game back with 20 points and 11 boards. LeBron James led the Cavs scoring attack with 25 points along with 7 rebounds and six assists. Mo Williams added 20 points, Sasha Pavlovic 15 and Wally Szczerbiak 15 off the bench. Ben Wallace didn’t score any points, but pulled down 11 rebounds in 24 minutes of action.

The Clippers were paced by 27 points from Eric Gordon, with Steve Novak contributing 19 points off of the bench. Al Thornton added 14 and reserve Ricky Davis 11 for Los Angeles, who dropped to 10-37 overall and 5-17 on the road. It was their 8th straight setback away from their Staples Center home venue. After the contest, Clips’ coach Mike Dunleavy commented on the spark provided the Ilgauskas’ return to the lineup:

"We were a little unfortunate to catch them on a night they got Ilgauskas back. He certainly paid the rent tonight. His ability to make shots from the outside stretches your big guys out. "He's got really good range and gives them something they've been missing."

Before the game, the NBA announced that Cleveland head coach Mike Brown will lead the Eastern Conference squad at the All Star Game in Phoenix on February 15th. The honor goes to the coach of the team with the best winning percentage in each conference on February 1st—the Boston Celtics (.813) actually have a fractional advantage in this department, but with their head coach Doc Rivers ineligible since he coach the team last year Cleveland’s .800 winning mark was good enough to earn Brown the nod. After the game, LeBron James playfully dismissed his coach’s accomplishment:

"How'd that happen? OK, so they had no choice but to give it to him. They had no choice. I'll leave it at that."

Brown’s role as Eastern Conference head coach somewhat mitigates the snub of Mo Williams, who was not named to the All Star reserves despite an enthusiastic campaign by James for his inclusion.

The Cavs will play at Detroit on Sunday before returning home for a game against Toronto on Tuesday. They’ll hit the road again for a date at Madison Square Garden against the NY Knicks on Wednesday. LA will play eight of their next ten on the road, with games at Miami, Orlando and Memphis next week.