PHILADELPHIA: Despite sideline passes to one of the biggest college football games of the year, Cavaliers players watched the end of Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game like everyone else: on a screen.
Because of time concerns, the Cavs’ traveling party left The Game during the fourth quarter with the Buckeyes trailing 17-14. Some of them watched the end of the game as the plane taxied down the runway, while some lost their signal before the game ended and didn’t find out Ohio State won until mid-flight.
“I told the guys it was going to be a close game. There’s no way nobody is going to just pull away in this game,” said J.R. Smith, who was one of those who didn’t hear the final score until well after the game ended. “It was still cool though.”
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said the early exit was necessary because players had a short night of rest Friday after playing a game, then having to catch the 9 a.m. flight to Columbus. With the early tip Sunday, the team was concerned they’d get caught in postgame traffic and lose too much time if they stayed until the end. The plan all along was to leave early.
“Guys were tired,” Lue said. “But it was a great experience for us. Great opportunity, great event. We enjoyed it, but we understand we had a game [Sunday], which was an early game so we had to get out of there.”
The Cavs players spent the bulk of the game on the sideline and even took part in pregame warmups. Smith, who has a great arm, reached the end zone on a throw from midfield, he said.
The game also set an Ohio Stadium attendance record with 110,045 watching it.
“Having [110,000] to see you play is dope,” Smith said. “I wish we could get that for a basketball game.”
Shumpert, Frye out
Iman Shumpert did not play Sunday because of a hamstring injury. Shumpert, who has dealt with hamstring problems in the past, tweaked it in the first half of Friday’s win against the Dallas Mavericks.
“We just want to make sure he’s fine,” Lue said.
Shumpert’s absence means the point guard carousel will spin a little more. Lue has used a combination of Shumpert, Jordan McRae, Kay Felder and DeAndre Liggins as the backup to Kyrie Irving.
“We’re just searching for a steady backup point guard,” Lue said. “Depending on the game, we’re just going to try different guys until we figure it out.”
Channing Frye also remains away from the team following the death of his father on Thanksgiving. The Cavs have told Frye to take as much time as he needs. Sunday was the third game he has missed. He missed two games at the end of October following the death of his mother.
Game ball
James Jones was awarded the game ball following the 112-108 win over the Sixers. Jones started the second half in place of Kevin Love and knocked down two big 3-pointers during his 11 minutes.
Love took an elbow to the head from Robert Covington early in the game and had to leave the floor.
The Cavs medical staff held off on stitching it until halftime to reduce the amount of time Love was off the floor.
By stitching it at the half, however, Love wasn’t ready to start the third quarter.
“We always talk about with teams like this, we rely on every player to make a play to win you a game at some point in the season,” Jones said. “We were struggling a little bit in the first half, couldn’t make any shots. We wanted to change the tempo, Kev got stitches and Coach came to me and said, ‘Champ you’re starting.’ You know me, I’m all smiles. Any chance I get a chance to play, I’m ecstatic.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.