Lakers to retire two Kobe numbers
"If that's a bad game," teammate Kevin Love said, "then sheesh!" James finished with 20 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers past the Washington Wizards 106-99 on Sunday night for their 18th victory in 19 games, and then said afterward his choice of footwear was related to the game being played about a mile from President Donald Trump's White House.
"This is a beautiful country and we're never going to let one person dictate how beautiful and how powerful we are," the four-time NBA MVP said.
James had his fourth triple-double in the past five games despite being called for four fouls in the final quarter.
Still, he offered a scathing self-critique.
"I actually played pretty bad tonight. I wasn't as strong with the ball: I had six turnovers. Kind of lazy with the ball, at times," James said. "And my teammates did a great job bailing me out."
Love led Cleveland with 25 points and added nine rebounds. Jeff Green added 15 points, and Kyle Korver scored 11.
"He just affects the game in so many ways and makes a lot of plays for other guys, too," Love said about James. "He's just setting us up and getting us into our spots. That's what he does.
He's our leader."
The last time these teams played, at Washington on Nov. 3, Cleveland won thanks to 57 points from James.
That prompted Wizards coach Scott Brooks to joke before tipoff Sunday that holding the four-time league MVP to "56 would be pretty good tonight." He also cracked, "I have a lot of respect for Coach (Tyronn) Lue, but I think he's making a bad decision if he doesn't sit LeBron tonight. Back-to-back games, right? Our fans saw 57. They don't need to see any more."
This time, James was more of a facilitator.
"His IQ is the highest I've ever been around," Brooks said afterward. "Just the way he sees the floor."
Bradley Beal led Washington with 27 points, and John Wall had 15 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes in his third game back after missing nine with an injured left knee.
In a matchup of Eastern Conference division leaders, neither team led by more than seven until Wall turned the ball over, leading to a fast break for James, who was fouled at the other end and completed the three-point play for a 103-94 lead.
That was part of a 23-16 edge for the Cavs in the fourth quarter, which began with the teams tied at 83.
"Against a great team like that, you have to be sharp the whole game," Wizards forward Mike Scott said. "In the fourth, we weren't sharp on the offensive end, and they made plays."
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers will retire both of Kobe Bryant's jersey numbers in a lavish halftime ceremony Monday (Tuesday Phl time) when the Lakers host the defending champion Golden State Warriors at Staples Center arena.
"As a kid growing up in Italy, I always dreamed of my jersey hanging in the Lakers' rafters, but I certainly never imagined two of them," Bryant said. "The Lakers have bestowed a huge honor on me and I'm grateful for the fans' enthusiasm around this game."
The Lakers are pulling out all the stops in honoring one of the club's greats.
They will raise both of the numbers Bryant wore while with the team -- eight and 24 -- in his two-decade career, all of which was spent with the Lakers.
Bryant, who retired in 2016, scored 33,643 points, the third-most in NBA history behind Kareem AbdulJabbar and Karl Malone.
The fivetime NBA champion will become the 10th Lakers player to have his number retired, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, James Worthy, Jerry West and Jamaal Wilkes.
In addition to the halftime ceremony, the Lakers will host a Bryantthemed street festival outside Staples Center dubbed "Kobeland".
"When it happens, it'll be a little bit emotional," Lakers coach Luke Walton said of the jersey ceremony.
But Walton, who won two titles with Bryant as a player, said that as the game approached he would be "thinking 99.5 percent about our chances of how to beat the Warriors."
Golden State star Kevin Durant said his favorite memory of playing Bryant was when his Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated Bryant and the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs in 2012.