OKLAHOMA CITY – LeBron James, 38, offered a reminder of prowess with 40 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 129-120 road win over the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec 23.
He said: “To know I can go out and still make game-winning plays, can affect the game in multiple ways and can still close out a game in the fourth quarter when our team needed when they started making a run is always a good feeling for sure.”
The loss snapped the Thunder’s three-game National Basketball Association winning streak.
Having lost four consecutive games, and facing what Anthony Davis called a “must-win” tie, Lakers coach Darvin Ham tried to inject some life into his team by shuffling the starting line-up.
Ham started Jarred Vanderbilt and moved D’Angelo Russell to the bench.
Russell hadn’t come off the bench in the regular season since late in the 2020-21 season.
Russell did come off the bench for the Lakers in Game 4 of last season’s Western Conference Finals loss to Denver.
Explaining the tweak, Ham told ESPN: “We chose to lean into our defensive side of the ball. And when you play great defence, it makes the offence a little bit easier. And so, just wanted to lean into that side of the ball. Start out a little bit bigger.”
Ham’s move paid off, as the Lakers scored 71 first-half points to lead by 12 at the break.
Russell was particularly effective in the second, scoring eight consecutive Lakers points to start a 13-3 Los Angeles run to start the quarter and put the Lakers ahead.
Russell scored 12 points in the quarter, going four of five from the field.
Russell was far from the only Laker to get hot in the second, as Los Angeles shot 63.6 per cent from the floor in the quarter.
Said James: “Everyone was making shots and everybody was passing the ball. We were trying to keep it on time, on target and not turn the ball over. That was the key to it.”
Having James, who missed the Dec 21 loss at Minnesota due to ankle tendinitis, back in the line-up helped as well.
The Lakers’ offensive production kept humming in the third, adding 36 more points to lead by as much as 26.
James and Davis scored 10 each in the third.
The Thunder didn’t go away, though, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of Oklahoma City’s 32 third-quarter points.
The Thunder cut the deficit to eight on Chet Holmgren’s lay-up with just less than six minutes left in the game to cap a 15-6 Oklahoma City run.
James scored 11 in the next 3:30 to keep the Thunder from getting any closer.
Davis finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, while Rui Hachimura added 21 points off the bench.
The Lakers finished 16 of 32 from beyond the arc.
Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 34 points. Jalen Williams had 28 points, while Holmgren added 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault: “They came out like a team that was desperate for a win. I didn’t think we came out like poor or sloppy or soft or anything like that, but we just didn’t amp it up to the level that we needed to, in that first half especially.
“And we allowed them to kind of get to a groove. And I thought that was really the game right there. So it’s a good lesson for us.”
Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons slumped to a 26th straight defeat in a 126-115 loss to the Nets in Brooklyn on Dec 23.
They matched the league’s longest single-season losing streak – set by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers.
Said Pistons centre Isaiah Stewart, who had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists: “None of us went through this, ever. This is the hardest thing probably all of us went through, especially being in the pros.”
His coach Monty Williams, however, struck a note of positivity, saying: “I’m proud of the way that they just keep battling every night. Our guys don’t want to be a part of any kind of losing streak. But every day they come back with focus and drive and grit trying to win a game.” REUTERS, AFP
