For so long it was LeBron James who was dominating visiting teams at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
But this is a new era in Cleveland and Donovan Mitchell is now the one leading the way.
Mitchell took over to make a statement as the Cleveland Cavaliers took down the Los Angeles Lakers 116-112 on Wednesday.
Mitchell started slow but caught fire in the second quarter and did not look back, finishing the game with 43 points, four steals, five assists and six rebounds.
It was the first time in history that the Cavs swept a season series against James, who had a double-double (21 points, 17 rebounds) in the loss.
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Anthony Davis, fresh off a 55-point statement against the Wizards, made an immediate impact as he found James for a dunk in the opening minute.
The Lakers though then went 0-for-5 from the field as the Cavaliers jumped out to a 10-3 lead, hitting all five of their shots.
A pair of 3-pointers from Patrick Beverley and James helped close the gap, seeing Cleveland’s lead cut to 12-9 before Jarrett Allen scored, taking his total to six points after just four minutes.
Allen was having it all his way, targeting James in drop coverage with Stan Van Gundy urging the Lakers to adjust their defence accordingly while speaking in commentary for TNT.
“They are decimating the Lakers’ pick-and-roll defence right now,” Van Gundy said.
Unfortunately for the Lakers that assignment only became that much tougher when Davis was ruled out for the remainder of the game with flu-like symptoms.
Cleveland took a 27-26 lead after the first quarter, although the two teams struggled to find their shooting rhythm, combining for 4-for-21 from deep in the opening period.
Those shooting struggles did not extend to Allen though, who was the biggest bright spot for the Cavs, ending the quarter with 14 points after shooting 7-for-7 from the field.
If anything, it was L.A.’s second unit that was keeping it in the contest, outscoring Cleveland’s reserves 15-2.
Allen continued his strong opening to the game in the second with a layup to make it 29-26 before dunking it home to push Cleveland’s lead out to 33-28.
The Cavaliers continued to find success by driving to the basket and finding Allen, who finished the half with 22 points and seven rebounds after shooting 10-for-11 from the field.
While it was a blow for the Lakers to lose Davis early in the game it also gave them an opportunity to see if any role players could stand up with the added responsibility.
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It was primarily the usual suspects leading the way at halftime for L.A. though, with James (11 points) and Russell Westbrook (10 points) helping fill the void.
Thomas Bryant though also had a handy 11 points of his own, with Beverley (1-for-5), Lonnie Walker IV (0-for-4), Denis Schroder (0-for-2) and Austin Reaves (0-for-2) all struggling from deep.
The Cavs went on a 12-2 run to end the half but the Lakers only found themselves trailing 57-49.
Allen had been leading the way for Cleveland but Mitchell also heated up late in the second quarter to finish the half with 14 points while Darius Garland had nine points and eight assists.
The Lakers were able to level it back up at 65-65 four minutes into the third quarter, with James (four points, one assist), Schroder (seven points) and Walker IV (three points) all contributing.
Everytime the Cavaliers threatened to start to push away the Lakers would push back and went into the fourth only trailing 85-83.
L.A. continued to keep it close, taking full advantage of offensive rebounds and second-chance points to make up for its shooting deficiencies and level the game once more at 90-90 with nine minutes left.
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Mitchell then took over to score Cleveland’s next seven points, prompting L.A. to call a timeout, now trailing 97-92.
Mitchell continued to prove unstoppable as he added another eight points to help the Cavs push out to a 113-98 buffer, forcing the Lakers into another timeout.
There was just over three minutes on the clock at that point, with L.A. on the verge of being blown out despite a promising opening to the quarter.
In the end it was Mitchell’s night, with MVP chants erupting as he led the Cavs to a comfortable win.
BOGDAN BALLS OUT AS PISTONS BLOW OUT BUTLERLESS HEAT IN MIAMI
Bojan Bogdanovic had 31 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals to lead the Detroit Pistons to an upset 116-96 win over a Miami Heat team that desperately missed the leadership of injured superstar Jimmy Butler.
Coming into Wednesday’s (AEDT) game, Miami had an 8-4 record at home this season while Detroit was a dismal 2-11 on the road but the Pistons were able to flip the script at FTX Arena thanks largely to their Croatian star and a terrific performance from their bench.
It was a tale of two halves for both the Heat and Bogdanovic, as Miami had limited the Piston’s forward to just three points on their way to a 50-47 halftime lead.
Unfortunately for the home team, they couldn’t repeat the effort after the main break as the Detroit sharpshooter caught fire scoring 28 of his 31 points (shooting 12 of 16 from the field and 7 of 9 from deep) in the second half as the Pistons completed a 20-point blowout victory over the Heat.
Miami guard Tyler Herro led all scorers with 34 points, and centre Bam Adebayo contributed with 21 points to go along with 15 boards but the Heat (11-14) – with Jimmy Butler sidelined on the second night of a back-to-back as he manages a right knee injury – couldn’t find an answer on either end of the floor as the Pistons pulled away late.
Detroit (7-19) never trailed in the fourth quarter, despite still missing 2021 first overall pick Cade Cunningham.
Alec Burks scored 18 points with nine rebounds off the bench and Saddiq added another 14 points off the bench as the Pistons reserves out-scored the Miami bench 54-19.
MAVERICKS SNEAK PAST NUGGETS IN NAIL BITER
The Dallas Mavericks survived a furious late game rally by the Denver Nuggets to escape the Mile High City with their third consecutive win, thanks to a thrilling 116-115 road victory, with Luca Doncic and Tim Hardaway Jr. leading the way.
Doncic was productive again as he registered yet another triple-double (the 52nd of his career) finishing with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists but found himself not having to carry all the load for a change with Hardaway Jr. leading all scorers with 29 points (including six of eight from beyond the arc). It was only the fifth time all season Doncic has not led the team in scoring.
The tense win was even more impressive considering the Mavs held a 2-8 record leading into this back-and-forth battle and the Nuggets were 6-2 in Denver on the season.
Denver came out of the gates hot, jumping to an 8-0 lead before Dallas quickly worked their way back into the contest and took control late in the first quarter to hold a handy 36-29 lead at the first break.
The second quarter proved to be a tight tussle as neither team could find the ascendency and the Nuggets only slightly eroding the Mavs lead to trail 58-64 at halftime in front of their home crowd.
Denver started the second half much the same as the first, using a 11-5 run as the catalyst to reclaim the lead and give the Nuggets’ fans something to cheer about. However, much like the first quarter Dallas would steady before pulling away late to maintain a neat five-point buffer at the final change.
In a game marred by turnovers (both teams had 17 a piece) and fouls (the Mavericks had 32 to the Nuggets 28), it was only fitting that Luka’s uncharacteristic two turnovers in the fourth quarter (he had 5 total) would result in Dallas coughing up a 10-point lead.
The Mavs had led 111-101 with just 4:07 to go, before they went ice cold, failing to score for nearly four full in-game minutes as Denver raced back to take the lead 112-111 following a Bruce Bowen three with just 37 seconds remaining.
Dorian Finney-Smith then looked to be the hero, hitting an above-the-break three-pointer in reply to snap Dallas’ cold streak and re-establish their lead, only to unnecessarily send Jokic to the free-throw line and foul himself out of the game with 12 seconds left on the clock.
Surprisingly, the back-to-back MVP would miss his first before nailing his second to leave Denver still trailing by one point and needing to foul immediately.
Spencer Dinwiddie and Jamal Murray would trade a pair of free-throws to set up a grandstand finish before Hardaway Jr. would inexplicably miss both his attempts to give Murray an opportunity to throw up a halfcourt prayer to try and snatch the victory for the Nuggets.
Fortunately for Hardaway and the Dallas Mavericks, Murray’s heave missed and they escaped with the win, but barely!
Denver’s starting five all reached double figures in a balanced effort – Aaron Gordon lead the way with 27 points and 8 rebounds – but it wasn’t enough to stop the Nuggets losing their third straight, leaving them precariously placed at 14-10 (5th) in the stacked Western Conference playoff race.
In contrast, Dallas appear to have now overcome their midseason slump (having lost five out of six games prior to this winning streak) to be hot on Denver’s heels in 7th place (13-11) in the conference.