LOS ANGELES — LeBron James posted his 60th National Basketball Association (NBA) triple-double on Saturday, passing Larry Bird for sixth on the all-time list and leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 109-100 victory over the Utah Jazz.
James scored 29 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and handed out 10 assists. It was his third triple-double — putting up double digits in three statistical categories — in the four-game homestand that concluded Saturday.
His drive to the basket with one second left in the third quarter gave Cleveland an 80-73 lead going into the fourth, and he scored 10 points in the final period.
James had scored or assisted on Cleveland’s first 13 points. He connected on nine of his 15 shots from the field and made all 10 of his free throws.
Kevin Love had 15 points and five rebounds, and rookie Cedi Osman scored a career-high 10 points for Cleveland, who are 17-1 since Nov. 11 and notched an 11th straight home win.
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue earned his 100th regular-season victory since being promoted to the job on Jan. 22, 2016.
The Jazz were without French center Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, who were both hurt in a win over Boston on Friday. Gobert is expected to miss up to a month with a sprained left knee, while Favors suffered an eye laceration.
LAKERS RETIRE BRYANT’S JERSEYS
The Los Angeles Lakers will retire superstar Kobe Bryant’s jerseys on Monday, and it’s a farewell even rivals the Golden State Warriors don’t want to miss.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Oakland on Saturday that his players would be on the bench, not back in their locker room, for the halftime festivities at Staples Center.
“Just the experience in seeing one of the greatest players in the history of the game getting his jersey retired and we happen to be there,” Kerr said. “I’m not going to keep them in the locker room to watch tape of the first half.
“The players would look at me like I was nuts.”
Kerr quipped that his plan depended on approval from the Lakers — and Lakers president Jeanie Buss was quick to respond.
“Of course they are invited! We expected they would want to pay their respects to one of the greatest to ever play in the NBA,” Buss tweeted.
The Lakers are pulling out all the stops in honoring one of the club’s greats.
They will raise both of the numbers Bryant wore while with the club — eight and 24 — in his two-decade career all spent with the Lakers.
Bryant, who retired in 2016, scored 33,643 points, the third-most in NBA history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
The five-time NBA champion will become 10th Lakers player to have his number retired, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, James Worthy, Jerry West and Jamaal Wilkes.
In addition to the halftime ceremony, the Lakers will host a Bryant-themed street festival outside Staples Center dubbed “Kobeland.”
But Walton, who won two titles with Bryant as a player, said that as the game approached he would be “thinking 99.5% about our chances of how to beat the Warriors.”
Kerr, too, will no doubt want his reigning champion Warriors to be focused on the game, but on Saturday they were fielding questions about Bryant and his impact on the league.
“He was such an all-world competitor,” Kevin Durant said. “All-world just basketball player… I do miss that intensity that he brought to the court. He raised everybody’s — opponents, coaching staff — just everybody’s level of play.” — AFP
