The streaking Los Angeles Lakers were competitive early in Tuesday’s game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers when they got a dose of bad news.
Anthony Davis, who had been on an absolute tear over the last few weeks, left the contest and was ruled out because of flu-like symptoms. Without him, L.A. was up against it the rest of the way against a tall and talented Cavs team.
After falling behind 57-49 at halftime, the Lakers hit the boards hard to make it a very close game in the third quarter. But Cleveland pulled ahead in the fourth period, as it continually attacked them in the paint en route to a 116-102 win.
In the end, Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs’ newest star, killed the Lakers with 43 points on 17-of-27 shooting, while center Jarrett Allen added 24 points and 11 rebounds.
The Lakers will play the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, and if Davis is unable to go, they could be in for another tough night.
Davis left the game with 3:53 left in the first quarter due to his flu-like illness. Head coach Darvin Ham said Davis was feeling sick earlier in the day but wanted to try to play. There is no doubt that the Lakers’ superstar big man is a trooper.
In eight minutes, he scored just one point on a free throw while adding three rebounds and two assists.
James didn’t score a lot of points on a night when the Lakers needed him to do so. He went 8-of-17 from the field for 21 points, but he showed great effort with 17 rebounds, plus four assists, one steal and one blocked shot.
With 4:44 left in the final quarter, Ham went with a small lineup that had James playing the 5. At the time, the team was down by just five, but over the next 83 seconds Cleveland went up by 15.
The Cavs practically asked Beverley to shoot the ball from the outside, and he went just 1-of-5 from 3-point range, scoring five points and adding two assists, one rebound, one steal and one block.
Defensively, he wasn’t able to do much to slow Mitchell or Darius Garland, who scored 21 points and dished out 11 assists.
It was a somewhat odd game for Schroder. He had no assists, but he helped the Lakers’ cause with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Unfortunately, like the rest of his teammates, he had trouble connecting from long distance, as he was 1-of-6 from downtown.
It was an off night for Walker, which seemed to be symptomatic of the overall offensive problems L.A. had….
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at LeBron Wire…