CLEVELAND — Here the Lakers were, down double-digits early, their will already broken by just the slightest amount of pressure. Monday night, it was an offensive rebound that snapped their early momentum and sucked the life out of them.
It’s a scene that’s repeated itself in cities all over the NBA map — the Lakers folding after a blown call, a missed rotation, a bricked jumper or, in this case, a phantom box out.
The Cavaliers would go on to score 31 of the game’s next 42 points, the latest chapter in the Lakers’ ineptitude to stare down adversity being written in real time.
