The Cleveland Cavaliers Reach 60 Wins After Win Over Mavericks, 102-74

The Cavs have been breaking franchise records all season long, so Sunday was nothing new for them. They laid a beat down on the Dallas Mavericks, 102-74 and extended their win streak to a franchise high 12 games.

Seeing that Cleveland won this game by 26 points, it is hard to believe that this was a come from behind victory. They trailed by as many as 15 points before cutting their deficit to 2 points by halftime. 

"You are not going to win a game in the first quarter, you got to work the game the whole 48 minutes, "said Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle. "I thought our first half was good. We played aggressively, our shots were going down in the first quarter. "

Dallas started the game making 5 of their first 7 field goals. They eventually built a 30-17 lead before Joe Smith made a rare 3 pointer from the corner as the first quarter buzzer sounded to make the score 30-20. 

"Sometimes when our offense isn't working like we're used to, our defense lacks," said Lebron James. "We just told ourselves at the end of the first quarter that we couldn't let that happen. The shots were going to come, but let's do what we do best and that is defend. From the second period on, that's what we did."

With the momentum building and the Cleveland fans roaring, the Cavs were able to turn things around and outscore the Mavs 82-44 from the second quarter on. They outscored them 55-25 in the second half and held them to just 11 points in the third quarter. 

Once again, Lebron James didn't have to play a minute of the fourth quarter as the Cavs cruised to their 60th victory. He still managed to finish with 24 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds in just over 31 minutes. 

Mo Williams scored 22 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 14 points and 9 rebounds. Joe Smith contributed off the bench with 12 points and 13 rebounds. 

As a team, they held Dallas to just 36% shooting from the floor and they held them to a season low, 74 points.  

"Their record speaks for itself," said Jason Kidd. "They are the best team in the NBA right now. They are 60-13 and Lebron has them playing at a high level." 

Kidd finished the game with 9 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Nowitzki scored a team-high 20 points for the Mavs.

With the Los Angeles Lakers (58-13) falling to the Atlanta Hawks, 86-76, on Sunday afternoon, the Cavs now have a 2 game lead over them for the best record in the league. 

The Cavs will host the Detroit Pistons (36-37) on Tuesday night in what could be a preview of the first round of the playoffs.