The Los Angeles Lakers played the Cleveland Cavaliers tight throughout the game but never managed to get over the hump in a 121-112 loss. They finished their road trip with consecutive losses after starting with back-to-back wins.
The Lakers managed to cut their deficit to just four points with eight minutes remaining in the game, then five points with just under four minutes left, but never got any closer. The story Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena was the Cavaliers’ proficiency behind the 3-point line.
One of the top shooting teams in the league, Cleveland connected on 15 of 36 attempts from deep. Half of their makes came in the second quarter. Despite that, the Lakers managed to keep the game close by going on a second 8-0 run of the game.
Although the Lakers kept it competitive, there was a stretch in the second quarter that Brook Lopez would like to forget. He failed to contest a LeBron James dunk, then air-balled a pair of free throws, and followed that by getting hung on the rim on a lob attempt.
Brandon Ingram fared much better than his teammate, as Ingram scored a team-high 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds in what was a bounce-back performance after scoring just two points against the New York Knicks.
Kyle Kuzma had 20 points and seven rebounds to lead the Lakers’ bench attack. Julius Randle (13 points) and Jordan Clarkson (11 points) also scored in double-digits.
Playing against his idol for the first time, Lonzo Ball scored 13 points, pulled down eight rebounds and dished out 11 assists. Josh Hart set career highs 11 points and 10 rebounds in his first career start.
Hart was inserted into the lineup in place of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was not with the team due to personal reasons. While Ball fell short of a triple-double, James recorded the 59th of his career with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.
Kevin Love led the Cavaliers with 28 points, and Jose Calderon chipped in with 17 points, doing the bulk of his damage from deep by making five 3-pointers.
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