Charlotte Hornets still have no answer for Cavs’ LeBron James

The Cleveland Cavaliers followed up a pep talk from LeBron James by ending their road struggles.

“I think what we get caught up in, in our league too much, is trying to compare greats to greats, instead of just accepting and acknowledging and saying, “Wow, these are just great players, ‘” James said after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 117-103 win over the Orlando Magic”. Guard J.R. Smith hit a key 3-pointer down the stretch and his two free throws with 12.9 seconds remaining gave the Cavs a 94-90 lead.

He shrugged off the streak afterward. “I don’t have an answer for it. There’s no extra motivation or anything”.

And speaking of winning streaks, the Cavs win snapped the Hornets’ seven-game home winning streak and improved to 4-4 on the road. We’re very short-handed. Our guys played hard. They say, “Oh, Joe Montana is great.’ You know, ‘ Tom Brady is great. We need to continue to ride his coattail”, James said. “That’s a veteran ball club”.

Kevin Love had a double-double by halftime and finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds – and that is without playing the majority of the second half.

Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 21 points and added eight rebounds. Besides Smith, Love and James, for both Dellavedova and Thompson to start in place of several injured starters as they did during last year’s NBA Finals, and perform the way they did, it makes things all the more exciting when anticipating the full roster’s return.

Center Gorgui Deng and guard Zach LaVine each added 12 points off the bench for Minnesota, who trailed by more than a dozen in the first half and by six in the fourth quarter but stormed back.

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and guard Jerryd Bayless each scored 17 points.

LaMarcus Aldridge missed his second straight game with a mild sprain of his left ankle, but the Spurs were able to collect their second victory without their major offseason acquisition.

The Hornets scored just 14 points in the fourth quarter, going just 6-for-23 from the field (26.1 percent) in the period.

How would LeBron James react on the next game after disagreeing with coach David Blatt?

“It was fitting that there wasn’t a quote-unquote star of the game”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. Over the past five contests, he’s up to 17.8 points while connecting on sizzling 48.8 percent of his three-point shots.

“We had to pick it up a few notches in order to slow them down”, Blatt said.

Toronto took an 82-80 lead into the fourth quarter of the see-saw affair, in front of capacity crowd of 20,140 that turned out for the third annual Drake Night. “That’s a credit to our players”.

The Bucks had seven players score in double figures, including each of its starters.

The Charlotte Hornets are quietly beginning to look like one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference and will get another chance to prove themselves when they host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.

He set a season-high for points by half-time and Cleveland cruised to their 11th consecutive triumph in this series.