LeBron James on Monday went on tear in the fourth quarter on his former home court, scoring 23 of his 46 points to keep the Los Angeles Lakers unbeaten on the road with a 115-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Anthony Davis added 17 points as the defending NBA champions improved to 10-0 away from home.
The win for Los Angeles came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash.
Photo: AP
James’ outburst in the fourth quarter appeared to be directed at someone sitting among Cleveland’s front office group in the socially distanced front row across from the Cavs’ bench.
He made nine of 10 shots in the fourth, posing to hold his form after draining a 34-foot three-pointer just before the 24-second clock expired to put the Lakers ahead 103-98.
James followed that with a step-back three and then drained a fadeaway turn-around jumper in the corner before shaking his head at Cleveland’s bench.
Photo: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY
Andre Drummond scored 25 and added 17 rebounds for the Cavaliers.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game that he wanted his team to “scrap,” and that is exactly what the Cavs did — until James took over the way he did in Cleveland for 11 seasons.
While still a homecoming for James, this one felt very different.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there were only 2,000 fans inside the 18,000-plus-seat Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The sparse crowd welcomed James warmly and the building was dotted with plenty of fans wearing his purple-and-gold LA jersey.
In Dallas, Texas, Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was ejected after what appeared to be an intentional shot to the groin area of Mavericks player Tim Hardaway Jr in the second half of their game, which Denver won 117-113.
Murray stumbled backward after the pair collided as Denver were setting up on offense.
Murray got up and reached between Hardaway’s legs with his right arm, prompting Hardaway to double over.
The official closest to the contact blew the whistle to stop play with 4 minutes, 51 seconds left in the third quarter and conferred with the other referees.
The initial call was a foul on Murray and it was upgraded to a flagrant-two foul on a video review.
Denver Coach Michael Malone said he asked crew chief Zach Zarba for an explanation, and Zarba told him the replay was “fairly obvious.”
“There was a lot of physicality between those two,” Malone said. “They came out very aggressive in the third quarter, which we knew they would. Hopefully, it’s nothing more than Jamal getting ejected tonight and we can just use it as a learning experience.”
“I guess he was just frustrated that they didn’t call a foul,” Hardaway said. “I was just trying to do the best I can to deny the ball. The rest of it speaks for itself. It happens in a game, but it doesn’t even matter at this point. We lost.”
In other games on Monday, it was:
‧ Warriors 130, T’wolves 108
‧ Pacers 129, Raptors 114
‧ Trail Blazers 122, Thunder 125
‧ Magic 117, Hornets 108
‧ Nets 98, Heat 85
‧ Bulls 103, Celtics 119
‧ Pistons 119, 76ers 104
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