LBJ made history Monday night in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 117-103 win against the visiting Orlando Magic.
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“It’s just like he never left”, Thunder guard Russell Westbrook added.
The Knicks hadn’t even trailed by double figures in any of their last eight games. The Cavs had 34 assists on 43 field goals. “So none of that would be possible without them”.
While the offense was great, the defense left much to be desired.
But just as Magic fans began dreaming of an upset, the Cavaliers clicked into gear with Love pouring on the points as Cleveland took a grip on the contest.
The Cavaliers also shot lights-out from 3-point range, going 18 for 35 from beyond the arc. And Oscar himself drew the parallels between his championship-less Cincinnati Royals teams and LeBron’s initial Cavaliers squads, criticizing the franchise for not surrounding James with enough talent. His 31,419 points rank fifth all time, and he averaged at least 21.2 rebounds in each of his first 10 seasons, including a league-record 27.2 in 1960-61.
Lebron’s own team, Cleveland, are missing four of their top eight players due to a string of injuries. The bench has been good this year, but there’s no excuse for turning a 12 point lead into a six point deficit. “He’s not going to have his best game [against us], he’s going to score points, but he’s not going to have his best game”. Sweeping changes in countless facets of the game – from strategy to rules, from conditioning to skill training, from depth and quality of competition to strength of supporting cast, from injuries to dumb luck – make apples-to-apples player and team comparisons across eras just about inconceivable.
Matthew Dellavedova is a competitor. However, youu wouldn’t know his ankle was hurt after seeing his performance against the Magic. The city of Cleveland was crushed, heartbroken, dead inside as they watched their prodigal son leave his home and play for another team miles away. “We’ve got a whole team to defend”.
Phoenix were led by forward Markieff Morris’ game-high 28 points, just two of which came in the fourth quarter, on 12-of-15 shooting from the field. He has played with more confidence and toughness than he did all of last season. “Every time there is a great young player, everybody always talks about Michael [Jordan] and stuff like that, but to me, he’s always been more of like a Magic [Johnson] or an Oscar-type player, anyway, because of his vision”, said Skiles, the NBA’s all-time single-game assists leader, with 30.
LeBron reaches milestones on seemingly a nightly basis, but this could be his most impressive individual accomplishment.
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James joined Robertson on the exclusive list Monday when he found Kevin Love for a three-pointer in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ victory over the Orlando Magic.
