MY ACCOUNT
LeBron James hopes former teammate Kevin Love harbours no resentment after a brutal dunk in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 130-121 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
James’ return to Cleveland saw him put up a triple-double of 38 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds, along with the dunk on his championship-winning teammate Love.
Attacking off an Austin Reaves dish inside, the 37-year-old launched to the basket with Love underneath, and the knee in the chest only served as a punctuation mark to what was a ferocious dunk.
Afterwards, James joked he hopes the invitation to the wedding of Love – whom he played with at the Cavs from 2014 to 2018 – is not rescinded.
“It was after the offensive rebound so I was diving down the middle, and once I got the bounce pass and put my left leg down on the ground, that’s when I looked up,” James said at the post-game news conference.
“To be completely honest, I hate that it had to be him. He’s my guy, that’s my brother and I hope I’m still invited to the wedding.
“That’s not even in my all-time dunks so take it out. Kevin Love, I love you. I wish I could take those two points back and we’d still win by nine.”
After last Sunday’s demolition at the hands of the Phoenix Suns, the Lakers have regrouped on this road trip and if not for a fourth-quarter collapse against the Washington Wizards on Saturday, would be coming back home with a three-game win streak.
James believes performances have nevertheless been encouraging, with the Western Conference play-in on the horizon.
“For about 11 quarters, we’ve played some good basketball,” he said. “Aside from the fourth quarter in the last game, we’ve played some good basketball and want to continue that trend.
“Obviously we want to defend a lot better, but this team is making a lot of shots, making a lot of plays and scoring a lot of points versus everybody.
“To come into this building, where [they] have played some exceptional basketball all year, on the last game of a road trip before we head back west, it was a big game from us.”
