Cavs News: Rip City is Dunk City, milk and cereal, awful trade

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been shaky on the road, but most NBA teams struggle away from their home arena. Heading into Portland last night to take on the Trail Blazers, in Ricky Rubio’s return game, the Cavs shook off those road woes and came away with a 119-113 victory in a game they trailed for most of the night.

The key? J.B. Bickerstaff and his coaching staff clearly identified a weakness in the Portland defense and exploited it early and often, passing the ball to a big man in the paint and then having another big in the dunker’s spot waiting to catch a lob at the rim. In the first quarter alone Jarrett Allen threw three lobs to Evan Mobley, while Mobley tossed two back to Allen.

That activity at the rim led to 68 total points in the paint, and on a night when the Cavs shot just 31.8 percent from 3-point range, they put up 119 points on the road to win, which is even more impressive given that Damian Lillard joined the 50-point club on the other side. Last night Rip City became Dunk City as the Cavs dominated at the rim.

Ricky Rubio returned and played just over 10 minutes, scoring nine points and taking a charge. He was +9 in his minutes and overall did not look very rusty as he works his way back from a year off.

More Cavs news

One of the latest trends going around social media is how you eat cereal. Namely, do you put the cereal or the milk into the bowl first? The Los Angeles Lakers recently did a team promotion where they asked that question, and LeBron James appears to be leading his team right, as all of the Lakers said they go cereal first. That is the ONLY acceptable answer here. If you put the milk in first you are splashing it everywhere and getting all of your cereal wet, so now you’re racing and doomed to fail in eating the cereal before it is soggy. Cereal first, then milk at a single entry point, and eat your way from there. Good job, LeBron.

In more serious news, an awful trade idea led us to not only tear apart the deal but break out an old Sesame Street sketch with Bert and Ernie to do so. Check out the latest in our “Grade the Trade” series on the website. Also on the website, Dalton Livesay looks at which player has been the Cavs’ second-best through the first half of the season.

NBA news

The Milwaukee Bucks stumbled yet again, losing to the Miami Heat 108-102 as Giannis Antetokounmpo sat on the second night of a back-to-back. The Brooklyn Nets also lost to the Boston Celtics playing without Kevin Durant, expected to miss at least three weeks with an MCL injury. Finally, the Philadelphia 76ers were walloped by the Oklahoma City Thunder at home as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went off. That leaves the Cavaliers just one game out of second place in the East and a full game clear of the 76ers in fifth.

Out West, the Los Angeles Lakers continue to claw their way towards relevance as they took on the Dallas Mavericks and nearly won, pushing the game to two overtime periods before Dallas prevailed 119-115. LeBron James had 24 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists, while Luka Doncic had 35 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists.

Coming up: The Cavaliers head due East to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.