The in-form Los Angeles Lakers will have to face the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday without star duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
James has been ruled out with left ankle soreness, while Davis remains sidelined after showing flu-like symptoms during Tuesday's defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers, though the Lakers have said it is not COVID-19-related.
After a poor start to the season in which they lost 10 of their first 12 games, the Lakers went on a run of 8-2 from their next 10, before going down to the Cavs last time out.
Davis (27.3) and James (25.8) are comfortably their team's top point-scorers this season, with Davis in particular thriving of late, scoring a combined 99 points in recent wins at the Milwaukee Bucks (44) and Washington Wizards (55).
James has been his usual influential self recently, making 17 rebounds against the Cavaliers, tied for the third-most in his career in a single game and the most in any road game.
In a further blow to coach Darvin Ham, Patrick Beverley has also been listed as doubtful for the game against the Raptors due to right knee soreness.
Donovan Mitchell scored 43 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers claimed a rare win over the former face of their franchise LeBron James, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 116-102 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Tuesday.
Mitchell's season-high 43-point haul was the most by a Cavaliers player ever against James, while it meant that the 37-year-old four-time NBA MVP has a 17-3 record against his former side.
The Lakers were not helped by the first-quarter exit of in-form big man Anthony Davis, who did not return due to flu-like symptoms.
James finished with 21 points on eight-of-17 shooting, pulling down 17 rebounds with four assists, while Thomas Bryant came off the bench to add 19 points with Davis out.
The Cavs led by two points at the final change, but Mitchell took control on 17-of-27 shooting with four three-pointers along with six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Mitchell scored 29 of his 43 points in the second half.
Cavs center Jarrett Allen capitalised on Davis' absence on his own return from injury with 24 points and 11 rebounds, while point guard Darius Garland had 21 points with 11 assists.
The Cavs' win means they are 11-1 on their home floor and improved their season record to 16-9, snapping the Lakers' three-game win streak.
Mavs down Nuggets in a thriller
Dorian Finney-Smith drained a clutch three-pointer with 16.8 seconds remaining as the Dallas Mavericks downed the Denver Nuggets 116-115.
Tim Hardaway top scored with 29 points including six three-pointers for the Mavs, who claimed an impressive road win, even with Luka Doncic only managing 22 points on five-of-17 shooting. Doncic did record a triple-double, adding 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
Back-to-back reigning MVP Nikola Jokic was also down on his usual output, scoring 19 points with eight rebounds and eight assists, while the center missed a crucial free-throw with 12 seconds left.
Heat humiliated in second-half blitz
The Miami Heat were humiliated at home by the Detroit Pistons who triumphed 116-96, led by Bojan Bogdanovic and his 31 points, with 28 coming in the second half.
The Pistons piled on 69 second-half points after scores were 50-47 in the Heat's favour at half-time to improve their record to 7-19.
Heat point guard Tyler Herro top scored for the game with 34 points, while Bam Adebayo scored 21 points with 15 rebounds.
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham shed some light on Anthony Davis' health after the surging star was forced to leave Tuesday's 116-102 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers with flu-like symptoms.
Davis could only muster eight minutes before making his way to the locker room, being promptly ruled out from returning.
LeBron James picked up some of the slack inside as he racked up a season-high 17 rebounds to go with his 21 points, but the Lakers were no match for the Cavs down the stretch when Donovan Mitchell caught fire.
Mitchell top-scored with 43 points on 17-of-27 shooting, while Jarrett Allen was the main beneficiary of Davis' absence, dominating the interior with 24 points (11-of-14 shooting) and 11 rebounds.
Speaking after the loss, Ham said Davis' issue was one he was dealing with all day, but he tried, unsuccessfully, to tough it out.
"Yeah, it progressively got worse," he said. "His temperature went over 100 – I believe it was 101-and-change.
"He said he was going to try and give it a go, and he did, but he just felt too weak, drained and dehydrated a little bit.
"But, you know, it's that time of the season, in terms of winter time and the weather changing. Changing climates, coming from LA and going to these different places.
"We've dealt with it earlier in the year, and he experienced it again today. It set in earlier in the day, and it worsened as the day went on."
Ham discussed how he tried to combat the Lakers' lack of size by pivoting towards a focus on speed, but ultimately did not have the firepower to overcome it.
"We massaged the rotation a little bit… with him going out, just really trying to throw some different line-ups out there," he said.
"They're a really wide, rangy, long, athletic ball club, so just trying to get some speed out there to combat some of their size.
"Hats off to our guys, man, they competed their hearts out. That's a huge blow, obviously, with the way he's been playing of late, but they stayed the course.
"They got through the first half pretty good, they made it competitive in the third quarter, and then the bottom kind of fell out."
James gave his respect to Thomas Bryant, who came off the bench for the Lakers and chipped in 19 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes, but said there is no replacing Davis.
"Next man up, but that's a tall task – figuratively and literally – for what AD has been doing for us over the last few weeks," he said.
"I thought Thomas [Bryant] came in and gave us some great minutes. He was high-energy, worked the glass really well, but it was tough for us when AD went out. We had to switch up our whole game plan from what we were trying to do.
"But we gave as much as we could, we had a couple of opportunities in the fourth, but they broke away with it."
He added: "Obviously you can't replace AD, so everyone has to do a little bit more, but do their job, at the highest level or capacity they can do it, and live with the results.
"[Davis' exit meant we lacked] a little bit of everything. He's giving us everything – scoring, defense, rebounding, blocking shots around the rim, our length… when you have a guy that's six-foot-11 with a seven-foot-seven wingspan, you can't match that."
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Lakers, although they have still won eight of their past 11 outings to pull their record to 10-13 after a 2-10 start.
After going down 116-102 away from home against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, LeBron James made sure to give his respect to the franchise he called home for 11 seasons.
James was drafted by the Cavaliers as the first overall selection in 2003, carrying them to the NBA Finals in 2007, and then winning two league MVPs in 2009 and 2010 before taking his talents to South Beach.
He returned ahead of the 2014-15 season, taking the Cavaliers to four more NBA Finals appearances, highlighted by the franchise's only championship in 2016 when they came back from a 3-1 deficit against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors.
James has played against the Cavaliers multiple times since joining the Lakers, but he admitted that the video package his former team played during a timeout in Tuesday's game caught him by surprise.
"A little bit," he said "It's always love coming back here.
"Obviously, the memories I have here will never be forgotten, from the time I was drafted here as an 18-year-old kid, to the time I left, so the reception I got from the fans here, it's mutual for sure."
He added: "That's what Cleveland sports is all about. From the Guardians, to the Browns, to the Cavs – the fans are always going to support and be loud. I wouldn't expect anything less."
When asked if he has been impressed with the Cavaliers since they acquired All-Star Donovan Mitchell through an offseason trade with the Utah Jazz, James said he has been paying close attention for longer than that.
"They were competitive before Donovan got here, but I thought them adding him made them more dynamic," he said. "If you watched them last year, you saw how competitive they were then as well.
"When some of their guys got injured towards the end of the season they slipped a bit and ended up in the play-in game, but they were a good team last year.
"You add an All-Star, a dynamic guard like Donovan, it's automatically going to make a team better."
Mitchell played like a superstar against the Lakers, scoring a game-high 43 points on 17-of-27 shooting, while adding six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
"I mean Mitchell is Mitchell," James said. "He did a great job of penetrating our gaps, making some tough shots all night, and getting into a real good comfort zone. He's a really special kid."
Mitchell also had kind words for James, reflecting on his position now as a leader of the Cavaliers after watching the franchise on television growing up.
"It's crazy – I grew up watching him here," he said. "It really hit for me, that full-circle moment, when I watched him get that standing ovation and they played his intro.
"I just sat there on the stanchion and watched the reception he got – it's incredible. It's well-deserved, he's one of the greatest players of all-time.
"He brought a championship – the only championship – to this franchise. You've got to have admiration for that, and hopefully we can do something similar."
He went on to talk about how he will always view James as a Cavalier.
"There was a level of excellence he brought to the city, the way he's revered as an athlete," he said.
"I think the first initial thought is the Cleveland Cavaliers when you think LeBron – that's no disrespect to the Lakers or the Heat – but when you think of 'Bron, you think of Cleveland.
"He set that precedent. When you look at what he's done here in his career, in two different stints. To be the only team to come back from 3-1, leading that group.
"It's really cool, to be honest with you, to be in a situation where as a kid you're literally watching the games in front of a TV, and now I'm part of it."
The Cavaliers are built to last, and there has always been rumblings that James would end up finishing his career where it began.
But after signing a two-year extension with the Lakers in September, he is tied to Los Angeles until at least the end of the 2023-24 season, when he can exercise his player option and opt out, becoming a free agent once again.
When also taking into account the Cavaliers currently have four players who will be earning max-contracts – Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley – the reality is one would have to make way to accommodate any potential return of the 'King'.
NBA Player of the Week Anthony Davis exited the Los Angeles Lakers' clash on Tuesday with the Cleveland Cavaliers after experiencing flu-like symptoms mid-game.
Davis, who has averaged 37.8 points, 13.0 rebounds and 3.25 blocks over the past four games, left the court for the locker room late in the first quarter.
The Lakers officially ruled out the eight-time All-Star in the second quarter, reporting flu-like symptoms.
Davis had played eight minutes for one point with three rebounds and two assists, well down on his recent output.
The Lakers big-man has returned to career-best form this season, having been dogged by injuries over the past two years, restricting him to a combined 76 games in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
Davis scored 55 points in Sunday's 130-119 victory over the Washington Wizards, the second most by any player in a single game this season.
James Wiseman has been recalled by the Golden State Warriors after being sent to their G League affiliate three weeks ago, struggling for form.
The 21-year-old, who was the second pick overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, will link up with the Warriors in Salt Lake City on Tuesday for Wednesday's game against the Utah Jazz.
The reigning champions have ruled out All-Star trio Stephen Curry (left ankle soreness), Draymond Green (left hip tightness) and Andrew Wiggins (right adductor strain) for that game.
Wiseman had played seven games for Golden State's G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, averaging 15.6 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 26.6 minutes.
The young center has had a difficult time since joining the Warriors, tearing his meniscus in his rookie season before several setbacks in 2021-22 ultimately ended his campaign without playing. Wiseman is averaging 6.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists across 11 games for Golden State this season.
The Warriors have rallied to a 13-12 record, on the back of seven wins from their past 10 games.
The NBA announced on Tuesday it has created a new trophy for this season, to be awarded to the team that has the best regular-season record.
The Maurice Podoloff Trophy – named after the NBA's first commissioner – will be handed out for the first time this season.
According to the announcement, the trophy "features a crystal ball cut into 82 panels, sitting on a pedestal that combines the structures of the Eastern Conference posts and Western conference rings."
Podoloff's name used to be tied to the league's MVP award, though it had been dropped when Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic retained it last season.
Had the new award been given out after the 82 games last year, it would have gone to the Phoenix Suns after their impressive 64-18 campaign, and would perhaps have provided some consolation after they were beaten in the Western Conference semi-finals by the Dallas Mavericks.
The Boston Celtics currently lead the way in the NBA this season, with a record of 20-5 after finishing runners-up to the Golden State Warriors in last year's Finals.
The NBA also unveiled redesigned trophies for the Joe Dumars Trophy for sportsmanship, the Red Auerbach Trophy for coach of the year, the Twyman-Stokes Trophy for the league's best teammate and the NBA Executive of the Year Trophy, working with artist Victor Solomon.
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