Lakers come alive late and overcome their turnover woes in victory over 76ers

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The crowd had come alive.

Fresh off a timeout after one of their 21 turnovers, the Lakers sprinted around the court on defense, trying to keep their one-point lead. They double-teamed 76ers point guard Tyrese Maxey, then Austin Reaves recovered to an open Nicolas Batum, and Philadelphia forced up a tough three-pointer. LeBron James grabbed the rebound, jetted down the court and scored.

Then another stop by the Lakers — Tobias Harris airballed a three, one of his five misses from deep. The Lakers ran again, this time with D’Angelo Russell zipping a pass to an open Anthony Davis for a dunk and a five-point lead with 5:35 left.

Crypto.com Arena was alive. So too were the Lakers.

Read more: Anthony Davis plays and Lakers overcome shaky start in blowout win over Hawks

The stretch helped push them across the finish line in a 101-94 win Friday night when they rarely were at their best offensively but were good enough when it mattered.

The win pushed the Lakers (38-32) six games over .500 and allowed them to pick up a game on 10th-place Golden State (36-33), which lost to Indiana, the Lakers’ opponent Sunday.

After the Pacers, the Lakers play Milwaukee, Memphis, Indiana (again), Brooklyn, Toronto and Washington on the road. The games with the Grizzlies and the Wizards will be on the second nights of back-to-backs.

It’s an opportunity for the Lakers to make up ground in the playoff race — all the teams other than the Pacers and the Bucks are out of the playoff picture.

The Lakers came into Friday on a four-day break, an unheard of respite this deep into the season, and they were able to hold a pair of practices with a focus on defense. Against the 76ers, they looked much improved on that end of the court, holding Philadelphia to 34.4% shooting from the field and only 18 points in the fourth quarter.

Davis led the Lakers with 23 points and 19 rebounds, with two of his four blocks coming in the final quarter. James had 11 of his 20 points in the fourth, and the other three starters — Rui Hachimura, Russell and Reaves — each finished with 14 points.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored 11 off the bench in 24 minutes while…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lakers-come-alive-overcome-turnover-051935781.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2024-03-23 05:19:35

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