Cavaliers blow out LeBron, Bronny and the Lakers 134-110.

Cavaliers blow out LeBron, Bronny and the Lakers 134-110

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - On Wednesday night a kid from Akron and his son from Cleveland returned to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse as members of the Los Angeles Lakers. The 4-0 Cavaliers welcomed LeBron James and Bronny James and the rest of the Lakers to RMFH in the historic meeting as the first father and son tandem in NBA history played in the building that LeBron called home for 11 seasons and started his NBA career playing and Bronny who grew up running around RMFH as a child. The night turned out to be exactly what the sellout crowd wanted, they got to see LeBron Sr and Bronny play, but most importantly a Cavs win as they blew out the Lakers 134-110.

The Lakers took an early 6-2 lead at 11:15 of the first half when the Cavs turned the ball over and Anthony Davis hit LeBron James with a half court pass James proceeded to slam it home and got a loud ovation from at least half in attendance at RMFH. The Cavs took their first lead of the night 9-8 with 9:17 left when Donovan Mitchell hit Evan Mobley in the paint. After the Lakers regained the lead, the Cavs took it back with 7:14 left and then extended it as Mitchell hit two straight threes to put the Cavs on top 20-15 with 6:55 left in the opening quarter. Then with 5:28 left in the quarter Sam Merrill extended the Cleveland lead to 11 with the Cavs sixth three of the first quarter to that point. The Cavs continued to pour it on and with :50.4 left in the quarter the Cleveland lead had ballooned to 39-20 on a three pointer by Caris LeVert. Mitchell led all scorers in the first quarter with 15 points. Anthony Davis led the Lakers with six. The Cavs shot 8 of 1313 from three-point range in the quarter and 17 of 22 from the field for a scorching 77%. Meanwhile the Lakers were 9 of 20 from the field for 45%.

It was more of the same for the Cavs early in the second building their lead to 48-25 with 9:53 left on a layup by Jarrett Allen. The Lakers scored the next five points to cut the Cleveland lead to 48-30 with 8:02 left. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson wanted to stop the momentum and called a timeout. With 5:26 left in the half the Lakers Austin Reaves put on an academy award winning performance drawing a foul on Isaac Okoro. The Cavs challenged the call, and the NBA replay center agreed, and the call was not overturned. After the Lakers cut the lead to 17 after Reaves hit both free throws the Cavs scored five straight points and extended the lead back to 21 at 57-36 with 4:38. As time ran out in the quarter the Cavs held a 67-48 when the buzzer sounded. Mitchell led all scorers in the first half with 18 points, Allen also had 17 for the Cavs. The Lakers had two players in double figures. LeBron James and Davis each had 12 points in the first 24 minutes. The Cavs cooled off but continued to shoot well in the first half finishing 28 of 46 for 61% from the field. After hitting eight threes in the first quarter, they shot only 1of 8 in the second quarter to finish the half 9 of 21 for 43% from long distance. Both teams pulled down 17 boards in the first half. Allen led everyone on the board with 12 in the first half to achieve the double double. A big factor in the Cavs lead was that Los Angeles turned the ball over 10 times resulting in 19 Cavs points. The Cavs on the other hand committed only five turnovers resulting in just seven Lakers points.

Early in the third quarter the Lakers cut the lead to 70-51 and even more concerning for the Cavs was with 10:24 left in the period Evan Mobley picked up his fourth personal foul of the contest and was replaced by LeVert. After Dean Wade hit a jumper with 10:07 left LeVert hit a three on the next possession after a steal by Wade to give the Cavs a 75-51 lead with 9:36 left. Laker bench boss JJ Reddick called an immediate timeout. Numerous times in the middle of the third the Lakers cut the Cavs lead to as little as 16 points. But once again with 3:14 left on the clock in the quarter the Cavs built the lead back up and led by 21 at 89-68 when Georges Niang hit a three. Reddick immediately called a timeout for L.A. As the quarter ended the Cavs led by a score of 99-79. LeBron James led all scorers through three with 26 points. Mitchell led the Cavs with 22. Allen also had 20 points along with 17 boards.

With 10:03 left in the final quarter the Cavs built the lead to 107-79. With 8:22 left on the clock in the quarter the RMFH crowd started to chant loudly, “We want Bronny, we want Bronny.” Hoping that Reddick would insert Bronny James in the game. With 7:23 left the Lakers cut the Cleveland lead to 110-92 on a pullup three by another Laker’s rookie former Tennessee star Dalton Knecht. With 6:47 left Mobley extended the lead back to 20 points on a second chance dunk. With 5:16 left on the game clock the sellout crowd got what they wanted as “LeBron James, Jr.” entered the contest. He has now played on the same court where his dad became a superstar. Then finally, the crowd got what they came for aside from a Cavs victory when Bronny James hit a fadeaway jumper with 2:03 left in the contest and the crowd roared for the son of Cleveland as if the Cavs had just hit a game winning shot. The rest was just academic as the final two minutes ran out and the Cavs cruised to a 134-110 thrashing of the Lakers.

As he has done hundreds of times at RMFH LeBron James led all scorers with 26 points in a losing effort. Mobley led the Cavs in scoring with 25. The Cavs had three players with 20 points or more. Along with Mobley, Mitchell had 24 and Allen had 20 points along with 17 rebounds to lead everyone in that category. Darius Garland also had a double double as he scored 12 and had 10 assists and continues to play very well early in the season in his sixth year with the Cavs.

The Cavs outshot the Lakers from the field 58% (56 of 97) to 49% (38 of 77). The Cavs also outdid L.A. from long distance, outshooting them 42% (17 of 41) to 21% (6 of 28). The Lakers also committed 20 turnovers resulting in 30 Cavaliers points. The Laker did outrebound the Cavs, but barely 37 to 36.

The Cavs will play next on Friday night as they welcome the Orlando Magic to RMFH. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since the Cavs dispatched the Magic in seven games (4-3) in the first round of the 2023-24 NBA playoffs in May. Game time is 7:30 pm. The Cavs hold the all-time regular season series lead 65-61 and 38-26 all-time at home (Richfield Coliseum, RMFH).