Basketball: Mitchell, Garland star as Cavaliers down ‘spirit-less’ Lakers for 8th straight win

LOS ANGELES – Donovan Mitchell returned from injury to score 33 points and lead Cleveland to their eighth straight National Basketball Association (NBA) victory by defeating former Cavaliers star LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers 114-100 on Sunday.

Darius Garland added 24 points and the Cavs pulled away in the second half against a lacklustre Lakers side who got only two points from star centre Anthony Davis after the interval.

“All of our spirit seemed to have left the building, and one of the parts of re-establishing a winning culture is being able to maintain a competitive spirit,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.

“What we saw in the first half is how we want to play. We were right there going toe-to-toe with them, we actually had the lead going into half-time.

“And then second half, again, shots don’t go down, a few turnovers happen and we kind of dropped our heads a little bit and they just kept revving it up.

“We have to do a better job of keeping our focus and not getting down.”

Jarrett Allen added 16 points for the Cavaliers, who at 8-1 are second to the 9-0 Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference.

The winning streak is Cleveland’s longest since a 13-game sequence in 2017 – James’ final season with the club.

The Cavs now have a new standard-bearer.

Mitchell, a three-time All-Star guard who joined them from the Utah Jazz in September, has scored 30 or more points in six of his first eight games.

He said Cleveland, trying to return to the play-offs for the first time since the 2018 campaign, were not focusing on their former star James.

“I grew up a Cavs fan, so I’m very aware of LeBron, but I don’t think that was what we brought into the game,” Mitchell said.

“You’ve always got to have respect for greatness,” he added, but noted: “At the end of the day, we’re here to win.”

James, meanwhile, has respect for his former team.

‘’I got in trouble last time when I was just giving an honest opinion about the Cavs during last season’s All-Star break,” James said with a smile.

‘‘Which I don’t care, so I’ll give another... They did a great job in the off-season of picking up a big-time player. They have a really good team and a great coach.”

It seems a stark contrast to his sputtering Lakers, who fell to 2-7. They led by as many as 12 in the first half and were up by six at the break, but couldn’t muster a response as they were outscored 56-36 in the second half.

James scored 27 points and Davis had 19 with 12 rebounds. Russell Westbrook netted 19 points and handed out 10 assists to go with seven turnovers. AFP