The Los Angeles Lakers saved their hopes of claiming the No. 8 seed within the Western Convention alive on Friday evening with a dramatic 123-120 win over the Memphis Grizzlies that LeBron James sealed with quite a lot of clutch baskets, together with a surprising reverse slam within the closing seconds.
With 15 seconds remaining, the Lakers have been clinging to a three-point lead and the Grizzlies had the ball. GG Jackson determined to go to the basket and tossed up a wild shot that did not even hit the rim. The free ball was batted round a couple of instances and ultimately despatched out in the direction of midcourt, the place James went sprinting after it. Whereas he did not win the race, he was proper there to intercept Jack White’s save try and had nothing however open courtroom forward of him. From there, he determined to placed on a present.
“I felt like he was gonna need to strive to put it aside to his teammate, so I noticed his teammate in my side-view mirror, so I simply tried to leap that cross trigger he was attempting to put it aside on the sideline,” James later stated. “Fairly good learn, and I used to be capable of end it off.”
Together with the dunk, James scored the ultimate six factors for the Lakers after the Grizzlies had briefly taken the lead with a minute left to play. All informed, he completed with 37 factors, 9 rebounds and 5 assists on 13-of-20 capturing from the ground in 41 minutes. This was James’ fourth recreation with no less than 35 factors since he turned 39 years outdated earlier this season. In NBA historical past, solely Michael Jordan (six) has extra such video games at 39 years or older.
The Lakers have now received seven of their final 10 video games to enhance to 46-35 on the season, and in spite of everything outcomes concluded on Friday, they management their future for the No. 8 seed within the Western Convention. In the event that they beat the New Orleans Pelicans within the last recreation of the season on Sunday, they may end in eighth and keep away from the dreaded win-or-go-home No. 9 vs. No. 10 recreation.
Ought to the Lakers lose, nevertheless, they might then end in both eight, ninth or tenth, relying on different outcomes. They’re one recreation forward of each the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors, however each of these groups personal the season tiebreaker over the Lakers. The Warriors host the Utah Jazz, whereas the Kings are at residence versus the Portland Path Blazers — each winnable video games that put strain on the Lakers.
All three of the Lakers, Warriors and Kings will tip-off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Whereas everybody else can be maintaining tabs on all three contests, James has his sights set solely on New Orleans.
“I truly will not [do any scoreboard watching],” James stated. “As a result of on the finish of the day, the video games will dictate themselves, and no matter occurs, occurs. There is no cause for me to be scoreboard watching. It’s what it’s, it is the final recreation of the season approaching Sunday, so we’ll concentrate on New Orleans and go from there.”
