LeBron James celebrated his 36th birthday today with a victory for the Los Angeles Lakers over the San Antonio Spurs (107-121) in which Marc Gasol once again fulfilled his role as a multipurpose player.
James, with 26 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds, not only celebrated his 36 years with a superb performance that showed that he is still in top form but also achieved with this game the historical mark of a thousand consecutive games in the NBA regular season scoring at least 10 points. It wasn’t the only detail today for NBA records.
Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon became the first woman to lead a regular season game after coach Gregg Popovich was sent off for protesting to umpires late in the second quarter.
For his part, Gasol added 5 points (including an acrobatic basket plus an additional shot in the last moment of the second quarter), he did not miss any shot to the basket, captured 5 rebounds and distributed 2 assists in the 20 minutes he played.
The Spanish pivot has fully established himself as part of a Lakers starting quintet that, if there are no injuries involved, is made up of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Dennis Schroder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Gasol himself.
The purple and gold set came from losing on Monday to the Portland Trail Blazers (107-115). But today a relatively comfortable victory was given away with a game that practically dominated from start to finish by a distance that only in the final moments fell below the double digits with some danger for the Angelenos.
In addition to James, the winners of the NBA title in the “bubble” of Orlando (USA) also had the outstanding contribution of Schroder (21 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists) and a surprising Wesley Matthews (18 points with 6 of 6 in triples).
The Lakers now stand with a balance of 3 wins and 2 losses. For the Spurs, Dejounte Murray was the most notable player with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. The San Antonio team is now left with 2 wins and 2 losses.
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