LeBron James starred for the Los Angeles Lakers in a return to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers after he dropped a 38-point triple-double to lead the Lakers to a 131-120 win. Coming off breaking Karl Malone’s record for second-most all-time points in the NBA, James was coming into a warm reception in his hometown.
James always puts on a show when he faced the Cavaliers, and he did so again tonight. LBJ had one of his best dunks of the season in this game against former Cavaliers teammate Kevin Love, who is one of the few people from the 2016 Cavaliers Championship run still on the team.
Getting a highlight like that over one of his close friends isn’t something LeBron enjoyed, as he made it clear that he will not count this as one of his poster dunks because it came at the expense of Kevin Love,
"Look, when I turned that corner and I looked up I was like 'no Kev, just move…'" 🤣 @KingJames with @RealAClifton on the monster dunk on his good friend @kevinlove. pic.twitter.com/xIW52fFsZj
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 22, 2022
“At the very last spot because it’s K-Love. When I turned that corner and looked up like ‘no please Kev, just move’. I hated it. He should know when I get that Go-Go Gadget calf muscle going, imma take off. I hated it happened to him and imma take that out of my posters. I didn’t like that one because that’s my guy.”
Love and James were teammates from 2015 to 2018 and went to four NBA Finals together, winning the 2016 title when they overcome a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors, who were coming off a historic 73-9 regular season. James and Love had difficulties becoming teammates at the start but grew to build a strong relationship. That is evidenced by Love trying to jokingly headlock LeBron for dunking over him at halftime.
K Love to LeBron after the poster. 🤣
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 22, 2022
The Cavaliers are one-game ahead of the 7th seeded Toronto Raptors and will look to defend their position for an automatic playoff spot against them and the 8th seeded Brooklyn Nets.
