Philadelphia's struggles shooting and defensive struggles continued in the 3rd quarter. The Cavs increased their lead to 29 in the 3rd and Coach Brown decided to play mostly reserves for the remainder of the contest as he conceded the loss. The Sixers trailed 91-66 after 3 quarters of play. Brett Brown let Carter-Williams play in the 4th alongside the reserves in the final quarter. The rookie performed well but the Sixers couldn't get anything going until it was too late. Cleveland maintained at least a 18 point grip on the game until the buzzer.
Philadelphia's two highest scoring players put up duds in Cleveland. Turner finished with a measly 4 points (2-13 FG) while Young went scoreless (0-7) with 4 rebounds. Michael Carter-Williams put up the only respectable stat-line for Philly with a career high 33 points while grabbing 6 boards and dishing out 5 assists. James Anderson ended with 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and 15 points off the bench. Hawes contributed 9 points and only secured 3 rebounds. The Sixers got beat up by Cleveland's big men and were out-rebounded 58-38. Philadelphia only turned the ball over 10 times and scored 17 fast break points but shot a terrible 39%.
The Cavaliers got a huge unexpected performance out of CJ Miles. Miles led his team with a game-high 34 points off of 10 three-pointers. Both of Cleveland's big men had their way and recorded double-doubles. Anderson Varejao ended with 18 points and 14 rebounds while Tristan Thompson scored 12 points and grabbed 10 boards. Kyrie Irving handed out 8 assists and 3 blocks on his way to 16 points. The Cavs were hot, shooting 49.4% from the floor and hitting 13 of 28 from long range.
The Sixers have dropped 2 in a row, but have three days off before playing the Pistons (14-20) at home on Friday.
By: Matt Ryan