CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team to watch this National Basketball Association (NBA) season and they showed just why on Nov 20.

Ty Jerome scored 29 points as the Eastern Conference leaders bounced back from their first defeat of the campaign with a 128-100 rout of the New Orleans Pelicans to improve to 16-1.

The Cavs, who saw their 15-game unbeaten streak brought to an abrupt end by the Boston Celtics on Nov 19, shrugged off that setback to dominate New Orleans with a wire-to-wire victory before their home crowd.

They were always in control against a struggling Pelicans side who slumped to their ninth loss in 10 games. The visitors fell to 4-12 and remain one place off the bottom of the Western Conference.

After cruising to a 69-55 half-time lead, Cleveland dropped the hammer in the third quarter, outscoring New Orleans 36-18 to open up a 32-point advantage heading into the final period before cruising to win.

Jerome drained seven of 12 attempts from three-point distance, rattling in six of them during a remarkable second-quarter display that saw him bag 20 points.

Georges Niang also caught fire, shooting six threes to finish with 20 points.

Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson saluted Jerome’s electric second-quarter barrage that had the home crowd on its feet.

“It was great – those moments don’t happen a lot in the NBA,” he said. “It was like a superstar performance quite honestly – that’s so rare.

“It was great for the crowd, great for the group and great for Ty.”

In other games, Giannis Antetokounmpo bagged his third 40-point game of the season after scoring 41, with nine rebounds and eight assists in the Milwaukee Bucks’ 122-106 home blowout of the Chicago Bulls.

Antetokounmpo was backed by 21 points from Brook Lopez and 20 points from Damian Lillard, as Milwaukee improved to 6-9 for the season to move up to 10th in the Eastern Conference.

In Memphis, Joel Embiid shrugged off recent off-court controversy to score 35 points, but it was not enough to stop the Philadelphia 76ers from falling to a 117-111 defeat by the Grizzlies.

Embiid was reportedly taken to task by teammate Tyrese Maxey for his tardiness during a tense locker-room discussion following the Sixers’ loss to Miami on Nov 18.

He responded with a season-high 35 points in what turned out to be a losing effort. The Sixers are 2-12 for the season and remain rooted to the bottom of not just the Eastern Conference but the league as well.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, second in the Western Conference on 12-4, kept up their pursuit of leaders Golden State with a 109-99 home victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 30 points while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 28.

The Warriors dominated the Atlanta Hawks 120-97 to improve to 11-3. Andrew Wiggins led the scoring with 27 points while Stephen Curry chipped in with 23.

In other news, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James said he was taking an indefinite hiatus from social media after sharing a post which railed against “negative” coverage in US media.

James, who has some 212 million combined followers on his Instagram and X accounts, announced his break after sharing a post by Rich Kleiman, the long-time agent of NBA star Kevin Durant.

“With so much hate and negativity in the world today, it confuses me why some of the national sports media still think that the best way to cover sports is through negative takes,” Kleiman wrote on X. “I for one find it all a waste of breath.”

James shared the post to his followers with a one-word comment: “AMEN!!”

The 39-year-old then followed up that post to confirm he was leaving social media – for now.

“And with that said, I’ll holla at y’all! Getting off social media for the time being. Y’all take care,” he wrote on X.

It is not the first time James has stepped away from social media. The all-time record points scorer has taken breaks before, but usually to concentrate on basketball. AFP