CLEVELAND — LeBron James, like he has countless times in this arena on this floor, planted his foot on the court and exploded for a one-handed slam — his signature play in the city where he once brought a championship.
It was his first points of the game — a night where he’d be celebrated by Cavaliers fans not only for his return back to Northeast Ohio but because he came home with his son, Bronny, as a teammate.
But by the time he left the court, flipping the ball to the referee in frustration after his sixth turnover, the party was over. At least for the oldest James on the Lakers’ roster.
“We want Bronny” chants filled the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse at nearly every stoppage in the fourth quarter until JJ Redick relented and put the rookie guard into the game near his hometown.
It was all there was left to see Wednesday night, the Cavaliers (5-0) remaining unbeaten while handing James his worst loss in Cleveland, the Lakers (3-2) losing 134-110 in a game they were out of for nearly the entire 48 minutes.
“I just don’t think we matched their intensity with energy and effort,” James said. “It’s never good to take a step backwards, but we did that. And now we got to figure out how we can, take two steps forward next time.”
Cleveland attacked the Lakers with size and physicality, neutralizing Anthony Davis and James at the basket. And their shooting, which new Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson warned pregame might be a bit of fool’s gold, didn’t come close to slowing down.
The Cavs made eight threes in the first quarter in just 13 attempts while making all nine of their two-point shots, a masterpiece in modern basketball where teams try to hunt shots at the rim and behind the line. And the Lakers’ offense never figured things out, the team turning the ball over a season-worst 21 times.
“You play a good basketball team, you can’t make that many mistakes.” Redick said. “And we got down early and we couldn’t recover.”
It’s the Lakers second loss in a row.
Davis, who jammed his hip in the first quarter but stayed in the game, called the team’s final three games on this current road trip all “must wins.”
LeBron James led the Lakers with 26 points and Davis scored 22 with 13 rebounds, but neither impacted the game in meaningful ways. No Laker did.
And while the Cavs blitzed the Lakers from three early, it was their transition and interior defense that ended up getting most brutalized. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley combined for 44 points on nearly 60% shooting.
Cleveland led by 19 after the first quarter and the game was never close after that, the Lakers sputtering badly on both ends of the court.
“This is the first game where we weren’t grasping [the offense],” Davis said. “We were god awful offensively because of our spacing.”
Bronny James rewarded the patience of the Cleveland fans who stayed, hitting a mid-range jumper late in the fourth for his first NBA points.
After he made the baseline jumper, the crowd exploded.
“It was insane,” Bronny James said to the reaction he got in Cleveland. “Much more than I anticipated for sure. But it’s all love. It was insane. It was a nice moment. The chants really got me. I was straight-faced, but I felt it and it felt really good, especially coming from here. Yeah, it was a special moment for me for sure.”
