Basketball – A loss to crown the 100th triple-double of the “King”

The Memphis Grizzlies held off Thursday night’s 100th triple-double of LeBron James’ career by winning 108-95 in the NBA against the Los Angeles Lakers, while the 76ers were surprised by the Utah Jazz, winner 118- 96 in Philadelphia thanks to a Rudy Gobert in great shape.

Despite the 20 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists from King James, the Lakers, who remain in 6th place in the Western Conference, were stifled by the Grizzlies, yet deprived of their leading scorer, point guard Ja Morant , and their defender Dillon Brooks.

Anthony Davis may have added 22 points to those scored by his teammate LeBron James, it was not enough to make up for the 22 stray balls by the Lakers.

“Our biggest battle, our biggest problem this year is consistency,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel. “As soon as we take a step forward, we fall back and we have a disappointing performance. We have to find a way to correct that ”.

James said the loss of balls, converted by the Grizzlies to 27 points, was the key to the game. “Tonight (note: Thursday), that’s what killed us,” he said. “We’ve done a hell of a job in the last seven games averaging just 12.5 stray balls. Tonight, we conceded 22, which makes 27 points ”. “It was our Achilles heel before the last seven games, and tonight (Thursday) we had a spanking,” admitted LeBron James.

Jazz, for its part, consolidated its third place in the West, thanks to its victory in Philadelphia (118-96) – its sixth in a row – to which the French Rudy Gobert largely contributed (17 pts, 21 rebounds) , just like Donovan Mitchell (22 pts).

The Utah franchise was coming off a 136-104 victory over Minnesota on Wednesday, after which Timberwolves inside Anthony Edwards insisted that Gobert – three times best defenseman of the year in NBA – had “not instilled fear in (his) heart”.

Gobert admitted Thursday night that he heard the criticisms, while saying they didn’t do more than that to make him play better than usual. “I’m motivated every night,” Gobert retorted. “It’s funnier than anything else. People like to pick on me for no reason. I never take it out on anyone, I just do my job every night ”. “When you are the best in the world at something, people are not sure of themselves,” he said.

The star of the Sixers, Cameroonian Joel Embiid, was not unworthy (19 pts, 9 rebounds) before feeling a pain on the right side which then prevented him from giving the best of himself. “Honestly, I don’t know what happened to me, but it was pretty painful,” Embiid said.

Despite the uncertainty, Embiid said he believes he is ready for the reception on Saturday of the Golden State Warriors, leaders in the West. Finally, in the last game of the night, San Antonio dominated Denver 123-111.