CLEVELAND, OH -- The Cavaliers came into tonight without Kevin Love, who was experiencing soreness, Matthew Dellavedova , Larry Nance Jr , and Tristan Thompson. The Detroit Pistons star forward Blake Griffin sat tonight's game out for "load management", which resulted into an intriguing matchup between the two teams.
Cleveland and Detroit battled back-and-forth from the tip-off, all the way to the final buzzer. The Cavaliers were boosted by a 10-0 run late in the fourth quarter, which was led by great shooting from both Cedi Osman and Collin Sexton. With the Cavs trailing by 2 with 1:30 remaining, the shot clock was ticking down as Sexton pulled a step-back move and found nothing but the net, The Cavaliers again looked to Sexton with 39 seconds to go, and Sextonn delivered with a dagger three pointer to finally put the Pistons to bed. Cleveland then closed out the game to secure a 126-119 victory.
The Cavaliers were led by rookie guard Collin Sexton, who had a big scoring night, Sexton put up 27 points on 10-16 shooting, knocking down 5 of 6 from beyond the arc. Cedi Osman had the hot hand as well, scoring 21 points, shooting 50% from the field. The Cavaliers bench had one of their most efficient nights of the season, shooting 15-25, led by the shooting of Nik Stauskas, who scored 17 points on 5-7 shooting.
The Cavaliers will look to stick to their winning ways on Wednesday night, as they will take on the the top team in the East, Milwaukee Bucks, in Cleveland. Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM ET at Quicken Loans Arena.