The Cleveland Cavaliers coasted to an easy 117-103 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday. The highlight of the game was the 18 three-pointers for the Cavs, as they blitzed the Magic with outside shooting all night long.
The 18 threes occurred for the fourth time in franchise history, all in the year-plus since LeBron James’ return to Cleveland. The franchise record is 19, which occurred on Nov. 15, 2014, against the Atlanta Hawks.
Kevin Love (Cavs career high 34 points with six threes) and J.R. Smith (26 points with six threes) led the way scoring-wise. As first noted by the Akron Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd, by way of Elias Sports Bureau, the duo became the first pair of Cavs teammates to each make six-plus threes in a game since March 5, 1996. The duo that night against the Seattle Supersonics? Dan Majerle and Danny Ferry.
A shooting night like that is something to celebrate:
With the impressive performances, Love and Smith also both advanced up the Cleveland all-time three-pointer record books. This was something I tracked all throughout last season for Smith: on April 6, March 16, Feb. 17, Feb. 2 and Jan. 26. Here is a look at the franchise threes leaderboard surrounding the two after Monday’s game:
15. Lamond Murray 213 (in 223 games)
T-16. Antawn Jamison 209 (in 146 games)
T-16. C.J. Miles 209 (in 116 games)
18. Sasha Pavlovic 207 (in 302 games)
19. Bobby Phills 200 (in 334 games)
T-20. World B. Free 179 (in 275 games)
T-20. Kevin Love 179 (in 89 games)
22. Dion Waiters 177 (in 164 games)
23. Jumaine Jones 163 (in 161 games)
24. J.R. Smith 154 (in 57 games)
25. Alonzo Gee 149 (in 250 games)
26. Dan Majerle 146 (in 82 games)
As always, those are some great names. I particularly enjoy the contrast of eras between Dion Waiters and World B. Free. Of course, it’s particularly notable how quickly Love and Smith have charged up these rankings.
Let’s assume for a minute that both players participate in 60 of the team’s remaining 68 games during the 2015-16 season. That seems like a modest assumption. Where will they land, given their three-pointers per game pace with the Cavs? For Love, making 2.0 threes per game would put him at 300 threes exactly. Smith, at 2.7 threes per game, would finish with 316 threes, passing Love sometime in late March or early April.
On the record books, they both would then pass Chris Mills (No. 10, 297) and fall short of Damon Jones (No. 9, 344). In the meanwhile, several other active players also are all over the all-time list: LeBron James (No. 1, 908), Kyrie Irving (No. 6, 462), Matthew Dellavedova (No. 29, 140) and James Jones (No. 38, 75). It’s always funny to keep an eye on this as the year goes on, as a reflection of today’s changing game.