CLEVELAND - Saturday night’s offense-minded showdown at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse went in favor of the visiting Los Angeles Lakers.
Anthony Davis scored 23 of his game-high 32 points in the second half of a 121-115 Lakers victory that saw L.A. outscore the Cleveland Cavaliers, 28-21, in the final period.
The Cavs (8-8) dropped their second straight game despite scoring a season-high 71 points in the first half. The Lakers ended the opening half with 70 points - the same amount of points in the paint allowed by Cleveland for the whole game.
“Overall, our team defense let us down,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff stated after the loss. “Giving up 70 [points] in your paint…It’s going to be hard to overcome that.”
Donovan Mitchell returned from a four-game absence with a hamstring injury, scoring 13 of his team-high 22 points in the opening quarter. Mitchell also sank 12 of 13 free throw attempts, despite shooting 4-of-18 from the field.
“Overall, I’m not happy with the loss and my play,” said Mitchell. “Feel like I let the guys down a little bit, especially late.”
With L.A. leading 117-115 in the final minute, Mitchell had a pair of mid-range looks on back-to-back possessions, but missed both as the Lakers (10-8) took advantage to close out the game.
“Especially the last two possessions, those are shots I’ve literally been working on all week,” Mitchell added. “At the end of the day, that’s my job, and I didn’t do it. I didn’t play well the whole second half, pretty much. That’s on me. If there’s any criticism there, this is on me, and I’m fine with that. I’ll just be better.”
Cleveland’s tandem of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley each chipped in solid performances, with Allen grabbing a game-best 14 rebounds to go with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Mobley (8-12 FGs) scored 18 points while notching six boards and six assists, as the two were tasked with guarding inside against Laker big men Davis and LeBron James.
“I think they did a really good job,” Bickerstaff commented on the Cavs’ duo. ”Those guys put you in a really tough position. When you’re at [power forward], having to guard LeBron, he puts you in a bunch of different predicaments that you typically don’t see. I thought their effort was good. I thought they made them earn it.”
Cavs guard Darius Garland (neck strain) did not return to the game after halftime. Garland scored six points and totaled three assists in just over 13 minutes of play. When asked how Garland was doing, Bickerstaff answered: “He’s been evaluated. He’s doing okay, but obviously, we’ll have to wait until the morning to see what happens.”
On the Cavs’ bench, Georges Niang scored 13 points (including three 3-pointers), while Craig Porter scored seven of his 11 total points in the fourth quarter. Max Strus also made a trio of 3-pointers for Cleveland.
Davis grabbed a Lakers-best 13 boards while blocking three shots, while James overcame a 1-of-9 3-point shooting performance to total 22 points, six rebounds, and six assists.
Cleveland is set to face the Toronto Raptors (8-8) in a Sunday night showdown (7:30 p.m. tipoff) at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.