The Cavaliers welcomed a familiar face Tuesday night to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse as LeBron James and the Lakers came to town. With a 15-9 record, the Cavs are currently generating the kind of buzz usually reserved for only when James is wearing Wine and Gold.
The arena acknowledged its former King during their first time-out, but the rest of the night was about how the present-day Cavaliers hope to reign in the NBA for years to come.
"You always want to spoil the homecoming, that's just the competitor in you,” said Donovan Mitchell. “I said it to the guys in the huddle, there's going to be a lot going on, there's going to be cheers for him, boos for him, cheers for us, there's going to be so much emotion. We just have to play 48 minutes of our basketball; you can't get caught up in all that."
The two sides went back and forth in the first before Donovan Mitchell spun LeBron before finding Jarrett Allen on a lob for the Cavs to take the lead in the final minute. The big man finished a perfect 7-7 to lead all scorers with 14 points after 1.
"Honestly I just think it was right place, right time,” said Allen. “My teammates kept looking for me and they felt like they had to help off me to stop Donovan and DG and it just left me wide open down there."
It wasn’t a sharp-shooting night from the Cavs or Lakers in the first half as they combined to go 6-35 from behind the arc but Mitchell was able to tally 11 points in the quarter for 14 first half points while Darius Garland chipped in 9 points and 8 assists. Allen, however, led the way for everyone with 22 points. LeBron was the high point man for the Lakers with 11 as the Cavaliers took a 57-49 lead at halftime. The Wine and Gold however did there best to calm their nerves at the half.
"You have someone going for the scoring title, coming home to Cleveland,” said Allen. “As much as you want to say it's not a bigger game, the whole world knows that it is but we wanted to minimize it and play our game, we wanted to play Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, and stick to our own roots as much as we could."
Mitchell continued his offensive onslaught in the 3rd with 12 quick points to bring his game total up to 26 but the offensive struggles overall continued for the Cavs as they only took an 85-83 lead into the 4th quarter.
Spida was leaving his best for last in the 4th as the Wine and Gold started to pull away thanks to Mitchell’s 17 fourth quarter points as he tallied another 40+ point effort for the Cavs to finish with 43.
"He was there to stop momentum, to stop runs, to give us momentum when we needed it,” said Coach JB Bickerstaff. “That will to win, that want to help your team however you can and pull that train on the offensive end."
"He's locked into what he's doing, it doesn't matter he could be playing Bugs Bunny on the Tune Squad (since he's playing LeBron tonight), he could be playing anybody, he's locked in, ready to play his hardest and he's not going to let the moment outshine him," said Allen when asked about Mitchell’s performance.
The Wine and Gold took home the winner 116-102 over LeBron and the Lakers, his first loss as a visitor in Cleveland since 2012. The Cavaliers improved to 16-9 and are in the thick of the Eastern Conference elite, something Cleveland hasn’t seen since LeBron was in town, but Donovan Mitchell thinks this squad can change that.
"It's crazy, I grew up watching him here. Full circle moment, it really hit for me when he got that standing ovation, it's incredible, it's well deserved,” said Mitchell. “He's one of the greatest players of all time, brought a championship, the only championship to this franchise and you always have to have respect and admiration for that and hopefully we can do something similar to that."
"There's a level of excellence he brought to this city and the way he's revered as an athlete,” Mitchell concluded. “He set that precedent. He set the standard, we just want to go out there and try and win a championship and we have a team we want to continue to build."