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For four quarters, the Cleveland Cavaliers played even with the Phoenix Suns, one of the NBA’s elite teams.
And then the wheels fell off. In overtime, Cleveland was outscored 20-4 by Phoenix, shooting just 1-9 from the field. Ultimately, the Cavs lost 134-118. They’ve now seven straight with six games left in the season.
The highlight for the Cavs was perhaps the best game of Isaac Okoro’s NBA career. The team’s top pick in last June’s draft, Okoro scored a career-best 32 points while going 3-4 from three and 9-9 from the line. He also had six assists and spent most of the night draped onto Devin Booker and making Booker work for his 31 points.
Elsewhere, Collin Sexton added 29 points on 11-24 shooting to go along with 7 assists and 5 turnovers. Kevin Love had 7 points on 2-10 shooting and 11 rebounds. Cleveland was without Darius Garland, Larry Nance Jr., Matthew Dellavedova, Lamar Stevens and Isaiah Hartenstein due to injury. Anderson Varejão, who signed to the team on a 10-day deal earlier today, did not dress and did not play. It is not clear when he will be active for the Cavs.
Cleveland actually outscored by six points in the second half to take the game to overtime. Okoro tied the game with 24 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 114 all. Booker had a fadeaway jump shot miss badly with 1 second left, leading to overtime. To get the game tied late, Cleveland came back from seven points down with just over five minutes to play to force overtime.
Perhaps due to the many injuries, the Cavs only played seven players the bulk of the minutes. Okoro, for example, played 47 of a possible 53 minutes, while Cedi Osman played 45 minutes and Sexton played 39.
Up next: The Cavs are back tomorrow against the Portland Trail Blazers, who were off today. Tipoff at 7:30 p.m. EST in Cleveland.