Cavaliers’ LeBron James: Scores game-high 29 in Saturday’s win

Late in the first quarter, they took a 20-point lead when Iman Shumpert sank a 3-pointer.

He toyed with the Magic by making one smart, unselfish basketball play after another. On Dec. 11, Cleveland led by as many as 40 in a 111-76 rout. “Guys gotta understand – and I’ve told them this – only so many guys can play”, he said. “It’s no secret, they’re better than us”.

Center Tristan Thompson had 10 points and 12 rebounds and guard Kyrie Irving scored 13 points for the Cavs, who have won their last three games.

Then there was crossing a major mental threshold by throwing caution to the wind and diving onto the floor in the second half – and the Cavs already up by 20 points – without being encumbered by his surgically repaired left kneecap.

The Magic really did themselves in when they scored only 13 points in the 1st quarter, as they played their worst half of the season.

The former USC standout has dropped double-figures in all but three contests this season – and has posted some monster games against the Cavaliers in his career – including a 22-point, 15-reoubnd outing last March in the Magic Kingdom and a 21-point, 21-rebound game two years ago at The Q. Saturday’s affair promises to be another entertaining battle of the bigs on the corner of Huron and Ontario.

“I don’t feel any different than 30”, he said.

Forward Aaron Gordon scored 11 points and guards Mario Hezonja and Shabazz Napier each had 10 points for the Magic, all off the bench.

Irving shot just 4-for-12 from the field – he was 0-for-4 on 3-pointers – but the offense flowed from the start and he finished with five assists.

Breaking from his normal routine, James has appeared on court before games for extra shooting prior to each of the last four games.

NOTES: F LeBron James passed Tiny Archibald (6,476) for 21st place on the league’s career assists list. “Hopefully I can try to shake whatever I got going on and it doesn’t linger the next couple days”.

Before the game, James said he assesses where the Cavaliers are in the grand scheme of things each day. “Even when I’m exhausted, come out and get some more work done”. “I think there was a gasp of air, not only from my teammates and the staff, but also everyone in the building”.

“That was one of those moments we all talk about as athletes when you come back from surgery and you’re like, ‘That was the moment for me, ‘” Irving said.

J.R. Smith, who netted 11 points in that victory, will match up with Orlando’s second-leading scorer, Evan Fournier, in the starting lineup. That was the moment, ‘OK, I’m good.’ I bumped my knee on the floor.

No player has given the Orlando Magic more trouble in recent years than James has. We have a long ways to go, just going out and doing what we need to do every night to compete at a high level. Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic scored four apiece, Channing Frye had three and Elfrid Payton was scoreless…. Irving was 17 of 17 from the foul line for the season before missing in the second quarter….

Magic: visit Detroit on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are on a two-game winning streak and are aiming to extend it to three games when they take on Orlando.