Birthday Bash: Ivica Zubac helps lead balanced effort as Clippers beat Cavs

L.A. is 39-30 and have won four in a row.

(Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- The scoreboard at Intuit Dome glitched a bit in the first quarter on Tuesday night, showing the inverse score of what was transpiring on the floor as it displayed that the LA Clippers had an early advantage over the league’s best team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, when, in reality, the opposite was true.

But perhaps it had simply just gotten ahead of itself and knew the result long before anyone else in the arena was aware as the Clippers wound up defeating the Cavaliers 132-119 on a night that showed how good this L.A. squad can be when firing on all cylinders.

“It was great to see Kawhi [Leonard] having that pop in his step tonight, [Ivica Zubac] just being dominant the way he has been all season long, and some of the other guys that started didn’t get to play as much tonight,” acting head coach Brian Shaw said after the Clippers’ 39th win of the season, pushing them a season-high nine games over .500.

“But that’s the way it’s gonna go,” Shaw continued. “It’s gonna be different guys different nights, and we just need each other pulling for each other and pulling in the same direction.”

Ivica Zubac, whose birthday was Tuesday, led the way for the Clippers—perhaps not on the scoresheet as the leading scorer but as the energetic force who effectively neutered the vaunted Cleveland front line of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, outscoring and outrebounding the Twin Towers by himself.

Zubac finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds, becoming just the eighth player in NBA history to post that statline on their birthday. However, the 28-year-old became the only one of those players to do so on 70% shooting as he sank 13 of his 18 field goal attempts on the night.