It had been more than two years since LeBron James played a game in Cleveland due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Los Angeles Lakers star certainly made up for lost time on Monday, delivering arguably his best performance against his former team.
James scored 46 points in the Lakers’ 115-108 win over the Cavaliers, extending LA’s road victory to 10-0 to start the season, a franchise record, and doing it back in style in his home state of Ohio.
“Cook at home,” he said afterwards during a video conference with reporters. “It just felt good to be back in my sanctuary, my haven, and that is being home.”
For most of the trip, it was all warm and hazy feelings for the 18-year-old veteran. He spent time with his mother and uncle. He greeted former teammate Cedi Osman with a big hug during warm-ups, bypassing the competition’s health and safety protocols to show some love. He shouted out longtime Cavs employee Mark “Cobra” Cashman, who called him “the best equipment man in the world.”
But heading into the fourth quarter trailing the Cavs 89-87 after missing a turning point on the buzzer that would have tied things up, James found reason to leave the nice routine and bury his former team.
After his 14-footer bounced on the ledge and out twice above Taurean Prince, James Jason Hillman, the Cavs ‘basketball chief, sat in a group at the baseline with the rest of the Cavs’ front office and applauded the foul shot, sources told ESPN.
“I felt like he was just a little too excited to see me miss,” James said afterwards, declining to mention Hillman when asked who caught his eye. “He was very excited that I missed that shot. A little more than I would have liked. But he clearly needs to win his team. And he was, he showed.
“So I knew I had a quarter left, and the fourth quarter is my favorite.”
And what a fourth quarter it was. James single-handedly beat his opponent – the team he once helped win the only championship in 2016, mind you – 21-19 in the fourth to push the Lakers past a brave Cavs squad that defeated the Brooklyn Nets twice on their home floor last week.
After the carnage was over, with James knocking out 9-for-10, hitting a 3 off the Cleveland “C” logo on center court and a few more daggers from the outside as he got two assists, two steals and two blocks, all his former team could do was acknowledge James’ greatness.
“It doesn’t take much to get Bron going,” a Cavs source told ESPN of James ‘brief exchange with Hillman, with the four-time MVP taking an icy look in Hillman’s direction before moving to the Lakers’ bank. “He was unreal tonight.”
Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff added: “Take your hats off to him. There’s a reason he is who he is and he’s accomplished all the things he’s accomplished. When he takes shots like that, you pat him on the butt.”
It was the most runs James has ever scored against Cleveland, as he rose his career record to 15-1 in games played against the team he qualified for more than 11 seasons. And he was as accurate as he’s ever been with one measure – his 73.1% of the field in 19-for-26 shots was a draw for the best he’s ever shot out of the 240 career games in which he tried at least 25 shots (regular season and play-offs combined). The only other time he hit 19-for-26? Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Final in Boston, referred to by many as the most important win of his career.
James, aged 36 years and 26 days, became the oldest Lakers player with a 40-point game since Kobe Bryant scored 60 at the age of 37, 234 days old in the last game of his career.
“I just never put a ceiling on my potential,” James said. “I always wanted to get better and better and better to a point where I can now dictate [what] the defense can do. And the defense cannot dictate what to do. “
James finished 7-for-11 of 3, taking his shooting mark up from the outside to 41.2% this season, which would be the best percentage of his career if he continued.
“Taking pictures,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel, “was just ridiculous, and for him just one of those nights for all ages.”