“We suck at the moment,” breathed LeBron James on January 6, after a series of four consecutive defeats for his Los Angeles Lakers. Two weeks later, the “King” and his teammates finally found a second wind. After Oklahoma City (112-105) Monday evening, the Angelenos took the scalp of another franchise in the top 8 of the Western Conference: Dallas (127-110), in style.
Helpless on a three-point shot from Derrick Jones Jr at the start of the match (10-17, 6th), James, like the rest of the Lakers, got going at the end of the first quarter, with five consecutive points ( 25-21, 8th). Without Luka Doncic, the NBA Cup winners could even have widened the gap at halftime. The Slovenian leader, on his way to a triple-double (33 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists), chained penetrations and intermediate shots to compensate for the difficulties of his team behind the arc (11 out of 40, 27% success).
The momentum shifted on the last possession before returning to the locker room. After a lost ball from the Lakers, Doncic went to equalize but Jared Vanderbilt blocked his double step before Anthony Davis sharply countered Tim Hardaway Jr who had just grabbed the offensive rebound (55-53, 23rd). The power forward turned into a passer after the break (28 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists) – one caviar away from a triple-double – to put James then D’Angelo Russell (29 points) into orbit, untenable behind the arc and finally widen the gap (89-67, 31st).
Davis close to another triple-double
On the other side of the floor, Kyrie Irving was going through an ordeal (12 points on 4 out of 16 shooting), well held, notably by Vanderbilt. “We see that our players are finding rhythm again. “Vando” did an excellent job, in full-court press on Luka and Kyrie, causing loose balls, deflected passes, praised Lakers coach Darvin Ham. Collectively, once we chained together a few stops and limited offensive rebounds, we were able to run and gain the upper hand. »
With the game in hand, James (25 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) offered one last “show-time” action before joining the bench. On a quick play, the “King” delivered a delicious bounce pass to send Vanderbilt to dunk behind the Mavericks defense. Jason Kidd raised the white flag with four minutes to play by taking out his starters, imitated by Darvin Ham, preventing Davis from getting his second triple-double in three matches.
“It’s our job to find good positions as soon as teams throw doubles at him,” James said of his teammate, with an eye on his son Bronny’s game with USC at the university level. The father’s encouragement from a distance, however, was not enough to avoid a defeat against Arizona (67-82). LeBron James, for his part, sees his Lakers remain in 10th place in the Western Conference, three lengths from the top 6, synonymous with direct qualification for the play-offs.
2024-01-18 05:52:30
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