LeBron James entered the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers road game against the Indiana Pacers without a made field goal. It was the first time in his career that he had played the first three quarters of a game and could not shoot, and was in danger of not going without a place for the first time since December 29, 2004, when he left an early game with an injury after leaving 0 of 5 from 5 from the field.
Forty -nine seconds in the final box, James made sure that did not happen when he reached the board with a tray. And that was just the beginning of a fourth memorable quarter for James, who kept the best for the last.
Just before the final bell in Gainbridge Fieldhouse sounded, James inclined a Luka Doncic failure to give the Lakers a dramatic and very necessary victory of 120-119 to take a three-game losing streak.
“There was certainly a level of frustration at the beginning of 6 or whatever,” said Lakers coach JJ Redick. “But I have never questioned the commitment of that kind of winning.”
After obtaining a key defensive stop with the Pacers leading 119-118 with 10 seconds to play, the Lakers decided not to call a waiting time and ran the ball on the floor. James had it in the corner and could have forced a shot, but he saw a double team and kick Doncic, who led and appeared. His float came out of the edge, but he did it soft enough so that James could tip it again just before time expired.
“To be honest, I don’t know how he felt because he was trying to look at the Jumbotron to see if he took it out,” James said in his interview after the game with ESPN.
James, whose historical two -digit scoring streak seemed to be in danger when entering the last quarter, ended with 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. He shot only 4 of 12 from the field, but it was 4 of 6 in the fourth quarter to help ensure that the Lakers did not blow an advantage of 17 points.
Thanks to its great quarter, James has now scored in double figures in 1,283 consecutive games, which is 417 more than Michael Jordan, who is in second place on that list. (This streak only counts the games of the regular season. James infamously scored eight points in the defeat of Miami Heat game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 NBA Endings)
Speaking of Jordan, he is now the only player with the most career timbres whlkers than James, who registered his eighth on Wednesday. Three of them have come against the Pacers.
Casually, James had discussed his relationship with Jordan before Wednesday during a interview With Pat Mcafee, and said the two are “in a good place”, but do not speak because he is still playing.
“MJ, we all know MJ. Even if you don’t know him personally, he is one of the most ruthless competitors there are,” James said. “Until I finish and he does not have to look at me running up and down with number 23 and every time my name is mentioned, he mentions his, he says: ‘I don’t want to talk to you.'”
The victory over the Pacers was James’s third game of a sprain of the groin that kept him out for two weeks and was the beginning of a descending spiral for the Lakers. Upon entering Wednesday, the Lakers had lost seven of their last 10 games to fall from the second place at the West Conference to the fifth.
Hit the Pacers pushed them back to the fourth in a half full of people from the pack. With 44-28, there are 2.5 games behind Houston’s rockets secondly and three games ahead of the seventh Golden State Warriors in the race for a guaranteed place of playoffs. There are only a few weeks left in the regular season, but it can still change a lot for the Lakers in terms of sowing and first round clashes.
