The Los Angeles Lakers received a proper beatdown from the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers, 134-110, in the second game of their five-game road trip, coming off their first loss of the season against the Phoenix Suns. While Lakers duo Anthony Davis scored 22 and LeBron James recovered from his worst shooting night in 17 years with 26 points, the rest of the team just didn’t have it and the Cavaliers led by as many as 24 points in a wire-to-wire victory. Moreover, Anthony Davis had a little injury scare in the first period, but he assured fans that he was ready to play against the Toronto Raptors on Friday.
“Davis said he tweaked his hip in the first quarter and he’s feeling a little sore but expects to be fine and play in Toronto on Friday,” according to Lakers Nation on X, formerly Twitter.
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The Raptors themselves will miss Scottie Barnes, who sustained an orbital fracture after taking a nasty elbow from Nikola Jokic in their overtime loss to the Nuggets on Monday.
While fans might think it’s a free win, the Lakers shouldn’t play flat and lifeless like they did against the Cavaliers, or else they’ll suffer a worse fate than the Nuggets. For one, the Raptors took Denver to the brink before losing in overtime, with Nikola Jokic having to score 40 points in 44 minutes just to win.
Still, the Lakers sound ready to bounce back from this loss, starting from Anthony Davis, despite his injury scare.
“Tweaked my hip in the first quarter,” AD said in a postgame interview with Spectrum SportsNet. “A little sore, kinda like, jammed it, but I’ll be fine. Just bothered me throughout the course of the game, but it won’t stop me from playing.”
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Moreover, Davis reviewed their lackluster performance against the Cavaliers that cost them a blowout loss.
“We let them get comfortable early on, especially Donovan Mitchell. They kinda just fed off that energy in the first quarter and offensively this is the first time that I can say…we weren’t organized, our spacing was bad…turnovers turned to bad shots, which led to transition for them and points off turnovers,” he added.
Despite the loss, the Cavaliers paid tribute to LeBron James and Bronny James through a heartwarming video in the first quarter. Likewise, the Bronny scored his first NBA points in garbage time.
The rest of the team behind Bron and AD, especially the second unit, will have to figure it out if they still want to make good on Davis’ challenge not to lose consecutive games this season.