LeBron James sits out against Pacers

The Cavaliers dropped to 9-2 after matching the best start in franchise history with the victory over Toronto on Tuesday night.

DeMar DeRozan, James Harden named Players of the Week.

Kyle Lowry also had an excellent performance despite the loss with his 28 points, five rebounds, nine assists and four steals.

But it will not be easy for the Raptors in the Quicken Loans Arena where they had lost to the Cavs the last time the two teams had met in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals in May. DeRozan, who leads the league in scoring this season (34.0 points per game), couldn’t find his rhythm for most of the night, especially when LeBron James took up the task of defending him.

Curry attacked as much as he has all season, going 12/13 from the the free throw line – the Warriors went 26/28 total from the charity stripe in a whistle-happy game from the refs.

While Carroll has disappointed, Brazilian center Lucas Noguiera has gone from seldom-used reserve to key contributor. He finished with 24 along with five assists and five rebounds but after that, the scoring fell off precipitously. Prior to imposing their will, Curry and Zaza Pachulia had a two-on-one break in the second quarter, and Curry bounced the ball to his big man, who went up wildly for a layup. He played his usual 38 minutes in Tuesday’s win against the Raptors, and by National Basketball Association standards, this wasn’t a particularly grueling back-to-back.

At the same time, almost every Eastern Conference team is gunning for the defending champs or even just a shot to knock off LeBron and the Cavs in the postseason. “If a team is making 22 or 25 threes, you’re going to have a hard night”.

The Cavs last went 9-1 in 1976-77. The Cavs’ only loss was last Tuesday at home to Atlanta, 110-106. LeBron James and the Cavs are prepared in this kind of situation and will rise to the occasion.

“We had good rhythm for most of the third quarter”, Lue said. That fivesome had never played together previously. IN controlled the fourth quarter and earned a 103-93 triumph.

It looked like the game was over when James rebounded a missed Lowry 3-pointer, but he was called for a awful offensive foul with 24.3 seconds to go. Smith is averaging 10.5 points per game. They are 8 in the points allowed at 99.2 ppg.

Stephen Curry had 35 points and Kevin Durant added 30 in the victory, the Warriors’ fifth straight overall as well as their fifth consecutive win over Toronto.

MAGIC 89, PELICANS 82: Serge Ibaka scored 16 points, and Nikola Vucevic broke out of his shooting slump with 10 points and 14 rebounds to help lift Orlando at home. Irving also had six assists and six rebounds. It wasn’t until Channing Frye’s three with one minute left that they took the lead for good, as they were able to hang on down the stretch. DeRozan had 32 to lead the Raptors.

Brook Lopez had 30 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets. Nogueira was still out with his sprained ankle then.

The Eastern Conference rivals don’t play each other again until February 8 at IN, then February 15 at Cleveland and April 2 at Cleveland.

Dwyane Wade had 19 points for Chicago, which extended its modest winning streak to three games.