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James carries Lakers to close win

CLEVELAND — LeBron James went on tear in the fourth quarter on his former home court, scoring 23 of his 46 points to keep the Los Angeles Lakers unbeaten on the road with a 115-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.

Anthony Davis added 17 points as the defending NBA champions improved to 10-0 away from home.

James made 9 of 10 shots in the fourth, posing to hold his form after draining a 34-foot 3-pointer just before the 24-second clock expired to put the Lakers ahead 103-98.

James followed that with a step-back 3 and then drained a fadeaway turn-around jumper in the corner before shaking his head at Cleveland’s bench.

Andre Drummond scored 25 and added 17 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who were blown out by 38 on Sunday in Boston.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game that he wanted his team to “scrap” and that’s exactly what the Cavs did — until James took over the way he did in Cleveland for 11 seasons.

While still a homecoming for James, this one felt very different.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there were only 2,000 fans inside 18,000-plus-seat Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, which was known as Quicken Loans Arena when James led the Cavs to the 2016 NBA championship and ended a 52-year title drought in Cleveland.

The sparse crowd welcomed him warmly and the building was dotted with plenty of fans wearing James’ purple-and-gold LA jersey.

It was only James’ second trip back to Cleveland since he left the Cavs for the second time as a free agent after the 2018 season. Last year’s game was cancelled by the pandemic.

The Cavs were missing forward Larry Nance Jr., who sprained his right wrist against the Celtics. Nance leads the league with 2.3 steals per game.

Kevin Love (calf) and Matthew Dellavedova (concussion) are the only players left on Cleveland’s roster from the ’16 title team with James and both missed the game with injuries.

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