Evan Mobley had a huge first quarter on his way to a career-high 41 points as the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers held off the Charlotte Hornets for a 116-102 victory Saturday afternoon.
Mobley, who finished with six 3-pointers and shot 16 for 23 from the field, had 23 points in Cleveland’s 40-18 first-quarter domination. With five 3s in the quarter, he set his career-high mark for 3s in a game. He was 9-for-10 from the field and perfect on 3-pointers.
In the opening half, Mobley’s five 3-pointers were one fewer than Charlotte’s team total of 3s.
Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell each posted 18 points and Jarrett Allen tallied 11 points and 10 rebounds as Cleveland won its fourth in a row.
Brandon Miller racked up 25 points, DaQuan Jeffries added 17 points off the bench and Josh Green had 16 points for the injury-riddled Hornets, who’ve lost eight consecutive games. Charlotte couldn’t overcome its 11-for-39 shooting on 3-pointers. Vasilije Micic had 13 points and seven assists, and Mark Williams was 5-for-5 from the floor and finished with 12 points.
Jeffries, a guard in his second NBA game of the season, ended one point shy of his career-high total on 7-for-11 shooting with three 3s. He has played in 66 games across parts of five NBA seasons.
The Hornets cut the gap to 104-100 in the fourth before Garland’s floater and two close-range shots from Mobley. Mitchell’s 3-pointer pushed the lead to 113-100 with 2:17 left in the game.
Mobley finished with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Hornets went on a 12-4 run midway through the third quarter to close within 84-74 with 3:59 left. The gap dipped to 90-83 before Mitchell hit a 3-pointer to end the third-quarter scoring.
Charlotte, which fell to 0-2 against the Cavaliers this season, had a slow start and ended sluggishly on offense with 19 fourth-quarter points.
Cleveland has won five of its past six visits to Charlotte.
–Field Level Media
