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Cavs can’t finish off Golden St.
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Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving (2) shoots in front Golden State Warriors’ Charles Jenkins in the second quarter of a game Tuesday in Cleveland.
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
Monta Ellis’ jersey was splattered with blood and his nose was cut and swollen.
Golden State’s second straight road win wasn’t painless.
David Lee scored a season-high 29 points — 13 in the fourth quarter — and Nate Robinson added 17 points, leading the Warriors to a 105-95 win Tuesday night over the road-worn Cleveland Cavaliers.
Lee scored seven straight points midway through the final period to help the Warriors pull away from the Cavs, who looked spent after playing seven straight road games and committed a season-high 25 turnovers.
After losing their first four road games, the Warriors, who got only 10 points from a cold-shooting Ellis, have won two straight away from home for the first time since 2010 — an encouraging sign for first-year coach Mark Jackson.
“That’s what good teams do,” Jackson said. “Despite the adversity, find a way to get it done. Our guys did exactly that. When you compete and defend, you’ll win your share of games in this league.”
Ellis was only 2 of 12 from the floor, but Lee and the other Warriors picked up the scoring slack. Ellis got bloodied in the final minute by Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao, who accidentally nailed Golden State’s leading scorer in the face with an elbow.
“He’s an absolute gamer,” Jackson said. “He didn’t have a great night offensively, but still battled. He put his face in there, no pun intended, to make a play. That’s what winners do.”
Ellis was checked by Cleveland’s team doctors. He said his nose wasn’t broken.
“It wasn’t my night,” Ellis said. “It was David Lee’s night. We needed someone to step up. He can do that every night.”
Antawn Jamison scored 19 and rookie Kyrie Irving had 18 for Cleveland, which has only played four home games. The Cavaliers were sloppy at both ends of the floor, showing fatigue after being on the road for two weeks.
“It was just carelessness,” said Irving, who had eight rebounds and five assists but six turnovers. “But we’re going to continue to get better. Turnovers happened at the wrong times. It was turnover, turnover, turnover.”
Robinson added 10 assists, Andris Biedrins had 11 rebounds and Brandon Rush and rookie Klay Thompson added 14 points apiece for the Warriors. Thompson made all four 3-pointers and Golden State connected on nine 3s.
Golden State trailed 87-85 early in the fourth when Lee went to work.
The 6-foot-9 forward scored on a pair of layups, dropped a free throw and then drilled a short jumper from the wing to put Golden State ahead 92-87 with 5:54 left.
“Coach kept calling my number,” Lee said. “I wanted to be aggressive. I was able to get some good looks and take advantage of what we were running.”
Cleveland was only down by five, but it seemed like 15.
The Cavs looked tired, mentally and physically, from their cross-country trip. Cleveland played at Charlotte on Monday and dropped to 0-3 this season in back-to-back games. However, Cavs coach Byron Scott refused to blame tiredness.
“I don’t buy that,” he said. “It was Golden State’s fourth game in five nights. So that’s a bunch of bull. That’s an excuse and that’s something we’re not going to tolerate.”