LOS ANGELES—LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers looked every inch the reigning NBA champions Wednesday, opening the preseason with a 117-102 victory over the Orlando Magic.
The Cavaliers led by as many as 31 points, even with Kyrie Irving taking a night off, the Cavaliers preferring to rest their star guard for the exhibition after his exertions in helping the United States to Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro.
“Playing, winning the championship and then playing this summer in Brazil, winning the gold medal, we just thought [it was] a lot of wear and tear on his body, especially in the playoffs when he was playing probably 38 or 39 minutes per game,” coach Tyronn Lue said.
“For the preseason, we just want to let him get his legs under him, bring him along slowly and pick it up as the season progresses, but we don’t want to wear him out, get him to the point where his body is aching or different situations where something is tweaked.”
James, coming off his third NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award after leading the Cavs over the Golden State Warriors in last season’s championship series, scored seven points on three-of-four shooting with six assists in 13 minutes on the floor.
“It was fun to get back out there,” James said.
Kevin Love added eight points and four rebounds in 13 minutes.
James and Love were the only starters from those that opened game seven of the NBA Finals against Golden State.
Along with Irving the Cavs were without Tristan Thompson, nursing a sore foot, and guard J.R. Smith, who has become a free agent and has yet to strike a new deal with the Cavs.
“We’ll have our full group at some point,” James said. ‘It didn’t feel weird. It’s pre-season.”
Cavs reserve Jordan McRae led all players with 20 points, seven rebounds in five assists in 24 minutes on court.
The Cavaliers will launch their title defense in earnest on October 25, when they host the New York Knicks on the opening night of the regular season.
The Cavs will raise their championship banner that night, and receive their championship rings.
One ring will go to former coach David Blatt, who was unceremoniously sacked at midseason and replaced by assistant Lue.
“It’s not my championship, I recognize that, but I also feel that I did something there, and I graciously accepted because it was a gracious offer on their part,” Blatt said of his decision to accept in remarks reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Meanwhile, NBA star Derrick Rose and two friends drugged and raped a woman in her Los Angeles home hours after she visited Rose’s rented Beverly Hills mansion, the woman’s lawyer told a federal court jury on Wednesday.
“Each of them took turns raping her, they don’t even know who went first,” attorney Waukeen McCoy told the jury in opening statements of his client’s civil lawsuit trial against Rose in US District Court.
Rose has denied the allegation and his lawyer, Mark Baute, called the $21.5 million lawsuit “a fake case” in which the woman was seeking a “lottery hit” of a financial payout from Rose. AFP
Baute told jurors the sex that occurred during the 2013 incident was consensual, that the plaintiff was not drunk and that she had encouraged Rose through a series of texts to come to her apartment.
Baute said Rose and the woman had a “friends with benefits relationship” that had began a few years earlier when they met at a Hollywood nightclub.
The woman, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe” claims Rose and his friends Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen slipped a drug into her drink before “gang raping” her.
The woman didn’t report the alleged incident to police for two years, and her lawsuit was filed in August of 2015.
McCoy told jurors that the woman hesitated to report the incident to police because “she felt she would be a target because Mr. Rose is a big celebrity basketball player.”
No criminal charges have been filed against the 28-year-old Rose in the case, although court documents show that the Los Angeles Police Department has opened a investigation into the 30-year-old woman’s allegation.
Rose, a former NBA Most Valuable Player with the Chicago Bulls, joined the New York Knicks in one of the league’s biggest off-season trades.
He played in the Knicks’ pre-season defeat in Houston on Tuesday, but is expected to be in court in Los Angeles to testify on Thursday. He was not in court on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Knicks’ media day last week Rose said the woman’s allegations were “not true.”
The woman was expected to be the first witness to take the stand on Thursday.