The hosts broke the game with a great play in the third quarter and thus overshadowed the return of LeBron James to Northeast Ohio.
De’Andre Hunter added 19 points, while Jarrett Allen had 17 points and nine rebounds. This gave Cleveland their fifth consecutive victory, which is their longest winning streak of the season. The Cavaliers led by a narrow 57:55 at halftime, but they took control in the third period, which they decided in their favor with 42:22. It was the 12th time this season that Cleveland scored 40 or more points in one quarter.
At 57:57, the Cavaliers made a 25:8 run, in which Mitchell scored eight and Tyson seven points. Cleveland shot 7/11 three-pointers in the third quarter, after a modest 6/22 in the first half, and their total shooting from the field in that period was 17/25.
An emotional return and the heaviest defeat of James
LeBron James stopped at only 11 points, which is the first time in 13 visits to Cleveland as an opponent that he did not score at least 20 points. The 41-year-old Akron native spent 27 minutes on the floor, shooting 3-of-10 from the field, missing all three of his three-point attempts, while shooting 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
It was also his heaviest defeat in Cleveland in the jersey of the visiting team. As a player of other teams, he has a 10:3 record there, but in his last two appearances he recorded defeats, reports Index.hr.
Let’s remind you, he played for Cleveland from 2003 to 2010, and then from 2014 to 2018. In 2016, he brought the Cavs the NBA title, the only one the club has ever won.
An emotional LeBron soaks in the Cleveland tribute pic.twitter.com/SrcXsUIEfl
— NBA (@NBA) January 29, 2026
James broke down in tears during a minute’s rest midway through the first quarter, when the Cavaliers played video of his legendary game from Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons. Then he scored 25 consecutive points, and finished the game with 48 points.
Luka Dončić led the Lakers with 29 points. The team from Los Angeles is now 3:2 on their seven-game road trip. In the first quarter, Dončić had to leave the game for six minutes to examine his left wrist in the locker room. The Slovenian sprained his wrist after an awkward landing near the Lakers’ bench while attempting a three-point shot.
(Vijesti.ba)
