Rotowire

Cavs Legion won two games against the T-Wolves to shoot atop the standings in Group 7, but they faced a much more difficult task against the Wizards, who were coming off a 20-point win against a tough Hornets team. The Legion proved to be clutch when it counted and bounced back from an embarrassing loss to win the second game and advance to the playoff round,

The Wizards kept all cylinders humming and picked up where they left off against the Hornets in their last game, as they absolutely destroyed the Cavs in the first quarter, 17-0. The Cavs couldn’t sink a shot and were smothered by the District’s full-court defense. The second quarter was equally disastrous for Cavs Legion, as they only managed five points and found themselves down by an astonishing 32 points at the half.

The Wizards kept with the full-court press in the second half even though the game was well in hand, and Cavs Legion continued to struggle, although they managed to get more shots to fall and closed the gap to 24 points heading into the final frame. There wasn’t much the Cavs could do to make this competitive with only six minutes remaining, and the offensive barrage continued for the Wizards all the way to the end. The District won the first game convincingly, with a 61-32 victory. Dayfri led all DC scorers with a 22-point, 18-rebound double-double to go along with five blocked shots, and Just_Awkward was a defensive standout with eight steals. Strainer (20 points) was the only Cleveland player to score in double digits.

With both teams playing their fourth consecutive games in just a few hours, fatigue was a metric that seemed to come into play, especially for the Wizards, who had a much tougher set of games earlier. Despite the previous blowout, the winner of this game would have a good shot to advance to the playoff bracket. There was no early run for either team to begin Game 2, and things were fairly competitive throughout the first quarter. The two teams battled to a 15-14 score in the first quarter, with Cleveland holding the one-point advantage. Cavs Legion clamped down defensively in the second half and managed to extend their lead as the Wizards failed to keep pace. The Wizards cut the lead to four with 22 seconds left and were forced to foul Cleveland, who sunk both free throws and went on to take the second game, 59-53. Strainer went off for 30 points and seven assists to lead Cavs Legion, and oLarry pitched in with an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double. JBM led the Wizards in scoring with 17 points.