Texarkana Gazette

LeBron scores 46 as Lakers stay perfect on road

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CLEVELAND — LeBron James went on tear in the fourth quarter on his former home court, scoring 23 of his 46 points to keep the Los Angeles Lakers unbeaten on the road with a 115-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.

Anthony Davis added 17 points as the defending NBA champions improved to 10-0 away from home. The win for Los Angeles came on the eve of the one-year anniversar­y of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant’s tragic death in a helicopter crash.

James’ outburst in the fourth appeared to be directed at someone sitting among Cleveland’s front office group in the socially-distanced front row across from the Cavs’ bench.

He made 9 of 10 shots in the fourth, posing to hold his form after draining a 34-foot 3-pointer just before the 24-second clock expired to put the Lakers ahead 103-98.

James followed that with a stepback 3 and then drained a fadeaway turn-around jumper in the corner before shaking his head at Cleveland’ bench.

Andre Drummond scored 25 and added 17 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who were blown out by 38 on Sunday in Boston.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaf­f said before the game that he wanted his team to “scrap” and that’s exactly what the Cavs did — until James took over the way he did in Cleveland for 11 seasons.

While still a homecoming for James, this one felt very different.

Due to COVID-19 restrictio­ns, there were only 2,000 fans inside 18,000-plus-seat Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, which was known as Quicken Loans Arena when James led the Cavs to the 2016 NBA championsh­ip and ended a 52-year title drought in Cleveland.

The sparse crowd welcomed him warmly and the building was dotted with plenty of fans wearing James’ purple-and-gold LA jersey.

It was only James’ second trip back to Cleveland since he left the Cavs for the second time as a free agent after the 2018 season. Last year’s game was cancelled by the pandemic.

After dusting off his pregame chalk toss, a ritual he started with the Cavs and only breaks out these days for special occasions, James dropped four 3-pointers and scored 17 in the first quarter.

Nets 98,, Heat 85

NEW YORK — James Harden and Kevin Durant each scored 20 points despite three relatively quiet quarters, and the Brooklyn Nets broke away with a big run in the fourth to beat the Miami Heat 98-85 on Monday night.

Kyrie Irving added 16 points for the Nets, who completed a sweep of the Heat in two games that couldn’t have been more different. Brooklyn won 128-124 on Saturday, then took the rematch despite barely topping its lowest-scoring game of the season.

Harden had only 10 points and five shots through three, then scored 10 more in the 18-2 spurt that turned a tie game into a 96-80 lead. Durant shot just 4 for 17 through three, then hit two 3-pointers in the fourth, the latter snapping a 78-all tie and igniting the big run.

Bam Adebayo had 26 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a strong follow-up to his career-high 41 points Saturday. But outside of Goran Dragic’s 21 points, there was little else for a short-handed Heat team that is without Jimmy Butler and Avery Bradley because of health and safety protocols. Tyler Herro, Meyers Leonard and Maurice Harkless are injured.

But it looked for a while as though they could pull it out anyway, shutting down the NBA’s highest-scoring team until midway through the final period.

The Nets were 4 for 21 (19%) in the first quarter, missing all 10 3-pointers in their lowest-scoring period of the season, which ended with Miami leading 21-15.

The second quarter was slightly easier on the eyes — and rims. Miami took a 45-41 edge into halftime, going just 4 for 19 on 3s but doubling the Nets’ makes after they went 2 for 17.

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