1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs from win over the Spurs

The Cleveland Cavaliers Western Conference road trip made its way to the Alamo City on Friday night.

Having won three of the first four on this six-game road trip, the Cavaliers started the opening 12 minutes quite strongly at the San Antonio Spurs. The Wine and Gold scored 35 points and shot 56 percent from the floor, and also forced five San Antonio turnovers which they turned into seven points.

However, Cleveland’s lead shrunk as the second quarter went on, and toward the end of the frame, San Antonio even took the lead. But in the final 20 seconds, Cleveland got a putback from Lamar Stevens, and Darius Garland splashed a three-pointer from mid-court as the second quarter buzzer sounded.

San Antonio, a team, not known for shooting many three-pointers, came out of halftime and continued their impressive long-range shooting performance, as they connected on 5-of-9 from beyond the arc in the third quarter. Through the first 36 minutes, San Antonio hit 13-of-25 (52 percent) from deep, and took a two-point lead into the final quarter.

Cleveland’s defense came to play during the final frame, especially down the stretch. After a Dejounte Murray two-point shot tied the game at 103-103, the Cavaliers held the Spurs scoreless for over five minutes and only gave up six points over the final six minutes. More importantly, San Antonio only connected on 2-of-9 three-point shots.

Cleveland now heads to Oklahoma City for the final game of their road trip at the Thunder, and is looking to finish 5-1. But before we look ahead to that game, we’ll take a look at one stud and one dud from Friday night’s game.

We’ll first start with last night’s stud, who took over the final quarter and helped propel the Wine and Gold to victory.