CLEVELAND — Cedi Osman tied his career-high 29 points and equaled the franchise record by scoring all seven of his 3-pointers as the Cleveland Cavaliers one on their way to a 122-99 win over the Los Angeles Clippers A 40-point lead built up Sunday night.
All-Star starter Donovan Mitchell had 11 points on his return for Cleveland after missing three games with a strained bar. The Cavaliers never fell behind, taking their biggest lead of the season at 82-42 on Jarrett Allen’s first 3-pointer since Nov. 5, 2021.
“It was a great feeling, everyone shared the moment with me,” said Osman. “We played great offensively and it was a great game for everyone. We have such a good group of guys who always support each other.”
The Clippers, who had won five straight seasons, opted not to dress Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Reggie Jackson, who all played in Atlanta on Saturday. Officially, George and Leonard did not play due to problems with their right knees and Jackson has a sore right Achilles tendon.
Osman, a member of Turkey’s National Team, captured 11 out of 13 shots at the Turkish Heritage Night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Along with Kyrie Irving and Mo Williams, he was the only Cavalier to go over the arc in a game 7 of 7.
“That’s what Turkish Heritage Night will do for you,” Allen said, laughing. “Everything but his layups went in. He did everything he was supposed to do all night.”
Darius Garland had 16 points and 10 assists, and Allen had 15 points and eight rebounds for Cleveland, who have the best home record in the East at 21-5.
The performance was in stark contrast to the Cavaliers’ 120-114 home loss to Golden State nine days earlier, when the Warriors faced Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins.
“Tonight was a similar situation, but we took it seriously,” Osman said. “We knew Golden State was missing a lot of pieces and learned a hard lesson from that.”
Brandon Boston Jr. scored 24 points and Moses Brown had 13 points and 16 rebounds for Los Angeles. Ohio University rookie Jason Preston had season-bests of 12 points and eight assists.
The Clippers are tied 1-1 on a six-game road trip that ends Feb. 6 in Brooklyn. They missed 16 of their first 17 3-pointers and finished 2 of 19.
“I had some friends and family here so it was definitely a good night,” Preston said. “The more I was out there, the more confident I became.”
WELCOME BACK: Clippers coach Tyronn Lue led the Cavaliers to three straight NBA Finals games and won their only championship in 2016. F Kevin Love and Osman are the only remaining players who played for Lue.
“Usually when you lose LeBron (James) and Kyrie (Irving) it takes a long time to come back,” said Lue, who won 128-83 in four seasons with the Cavaliers. “They did a great job putting this team together to be where they are now.
“It started with the trade for Jarrett Allen, who was out of this world, and getting Donovan Mitchell that year took them to the next level.”