LeBron James’ 40 points lead Lakers to win over Thunder

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Lakers forward LeBron James dunks for two of his game-high 40 points in a win over the Thunder on Saturday night in Oklahoma City. (Nate Billings / Associated Press)

Since the Lakers won the NBA’s in-season tournament two weeks ago, the team has floated, their pockets, like their legs, heavier from their $500,000 journey into playoff-style basketball in the first quarter of the season.

Yet following that tournament win, the Lakers have struggled. They’ve openly griped about being road weary, about a schedule that’s kept them living out of suitcases since Thanksgiving, about back-to-back games and time zone switches that have pushed the days together into unrecognizable blobs.

The Lakers needed a break. That wasn’t going to come.

So instead, they settled for a jolt.

Anthony Davis, following the Lakers’ fourth straight loss, called Saturday’s game with the Thunder a must-win. Darvin Ham, the team’s coach, followed in suit with a starting lineup change.

And LeBron James retook his throne as the best player on the court , leading the Lakers to their best win of the season, 129-120, against the West’s second-best team.

James scored 40 points, hitting huge shot after huge shot in the fourth quarter, when he had 15 points, as the Thunder sprinted to try and close erase a Lakers lead that was as large as 26 late in the third.

The Lakers’ dished out a season-best 38 assists, James taking over as the starting point guard in the lineup switch.

After failing to straddle the lines between offensive and defensive lineups in the first two months of the NBA season, Ham decided on a lineup change that would clearly define his team.

He sent point guard D’Angelo Russell to the bench in favor of forward Jarred Vanderbilt, a move that would force the Lakers to lean into a defensive identity.

“And when you play great defense, it makes the offense a little bit easier,” Ham said pregame. “And so just wanted to lean into that side of the ball. Start out a little bit bigger. Obviously we’ve been struggling in a lot of first quarters this season so we feel like being a little bit bigger on the perimeter, more athletic…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lebron-james-40-points-lead-032601883.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2023-12-24 03:26:01

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