The Kid from Akron returned to ‘The Land’ wearing the purple-n-gold of the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time. Let’s see how the Cavaliers almost spoiled LeBron James’ grand welcome back home in a hard-fought 109-105 loss.
The Clevland Cavaliers were grazing the bottom of the well in the East with a 2-13 win-loss record already when LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers arrived with his new entourage.
The Lakers had just beaten Miami, riding on a 51-point performance from none other than The King himself, and were positive of finishing their road trip on a high, before heading back to LA through Cleveland.
It’s pretty saddening to see how Cleveland’s fortunes have plummeted ever since LeBron James left. From being the team that reached the NBA Finals for the past 4 years to being mocked over and over again for inferiority to the Zion-Barrett led Duke’s college team this season, there is no other word to summarise this but just sad.
The Cavs have already had a few tough losses this season and they came flooding out the gates to avoid another one. The sheer grit and hustle to cause an upset at home were quite evident as they led LA for the most part of the game.
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It was tight till the dying minutes before James went on an 11-point run and Korver missed an open look from deep with 20 seconds to go. And that was pretty much it.
Cedi Osman showed what it’s like to play freely when there’s no LeBron-pressure in your team anymore when he dropped a team-high 21 points shooting 5-7 from downtown.
Jordan Clarkson tried to create some resistance as well for his former team, dropping 11 of his 20 points in the fourth period. Tristan Thompson was his usual self, grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds, 10 of which were on the offensive glass, something he’s known for across the league.
But none of the Cavs’ efforts bore fruit when the freight-train in LeBron caught fire late in the game. He ended up with 32 points, 14 boards and seven dimes to provide a fitting end to his homecoming night.
The game featured 13 ties and 20 lead-changes, so it’s safe to say that the Cavaliers did not want to lose from the word go (shout out to JR Swish). LeBron James & his Lakers kept digging into their cushion and forgot to take the foot off the throttle in the final quarter’s death minutes, taking home an impressive road victory.
The Cavaliers now sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and the league with a 2-14 record, but Cedi seems positive about the Defending East Champs’ will to grind.
"“It was a great game. It was a great game for everybody. We competed really hard. We just have to go out every game and do the same thing we did tonight. There were, of course, some bad moments that we had, but mostly it was good. Everybody competed hard ,and we did our best to win tonight.”"
After this failed heroic effort of nearly sinking the Lakers, Cavs have a back-to-back against Philly & Houston waiting for them. The Lakers improve to 10-7(.588) on the season and will now head back home to face Utah Jazz, another team that’s going through a rough patch of its own making.