There is always a buzz in the building when Northeast Ohio native LeBron James takes on the Cleveland Cavaliers, who he powered to their lone NBA championship in 2016.
With fellow Lakers superstar Luka Doncic returning from a league suspension Tuesday, the atmosphere will be even more electric when Los Angeles hosts Cleveland in a matchup of playoff-bound teams.
The Lakers (49-26) and Cavaliers (47-28) both will be completing back-to-back sets, continuing their quests to lock up home-court advantage in the opening round of the postseason.
James added to his unparalleled resume Monday with his 125th career triple-double, collecting 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in a 120-101 rout of the visiting Washington Wizards.
Already the all-time scoring leader, “King James” tied Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most combined victories (regular season and playoffs) in league history with 1,228.
“I’ll just say he’s very praiseworthy,” Lakers coach JJ Redick deadpanned. “I don’t know what else to say about him at this point. I try to give a version of the same soliloquy about his longevity, but I don’t have anything for you tonight.”
Austin Reaves, Luke Kennard and Jaxson Hayes added 19 points apiece as Los Angeles won its third straight, remaining 1 1/2 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets for third place in the Western Conference.
The Lakers lead the Pacific Division by seven games on the Phoenix Suns with seven to play, while their advantage in the West over the fifth-place Minnesota Timberwolves is three.
Doncic received an automatic one-game suspension by being called for his 16th technical foul, leaving him with seven games to impress voters for the league MVP award. His averages of 33.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists have put him in the hunt.
“We’re definitely excited to get him back,” said backup center Hayes, who made 8-of-8 field-goal attempts and grabbed seven rebounds. “But no more technicals.”
Hayes has been on a tear over the last five games, shooting an incredible 90% on 27-of-30 tries while receiving pinpoint passes from Doncic, Reaves and James.
The 7-footer’s season field-goal percentage of .755 would top the league, but he doesn’t have enough makes to qualify for the official leaders.
“Coach keeps telling us to keep bringing that energy for our team and to keep attacking that rim,” Hayes said.
The Cavaliers trailed the lowly Utah Jazz with 5:17 remaining Monday before pulling out a 122-113 road victory. Cleveland is comfortably fourth in the East and two straight wins have gotten it within one game of the New York Knicks for the third spot.
Evan Mobley scored eight points down the stretch, finishing with 34 points, 17 rebounds and all 15 of his baskets in the paint. Donovan Mitchell also scored 34 points and James Harden had 13 points and his second consecutive 14-assist outing.
“Evan was the advantage tonight, so we said early to just keep feeding him,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He made great decisions and he’s playing great basketball.”
Mobley could have put up even bigger numbers, but foul trouble limited him to 30 minutes. The reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year shifted from power forward to center with Jarrett Allen (right knee) being held out.
Atkinson said swingman Max Strus (left foot) is likely to play against the Lakers but would not commit to Allen seeing action. Allen missed almost a month with tendinitis before playing Friday against the Miami Heat.
“We know this is going to be even more of a challenge game, so we can’t have any slips like we did today,” Mobley said. “We’ve got to do a better job of locking in on defense.”
