Lakers News: Hoop Fiends React To Topsy-Turvy End Of Sixers-Lakers
Last night, your Los Angeles Lakers mounted a confounding late-game charge to force an overtime period after falling down big in the fourth quarter, before collapsing in overtime during an eventual 133-122 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Austin Reaves, De'Anthony Melton and James Harden all had big nights for their respective clubs. LeBron James was... fine.
NBA Twitter was all over one of the wildest, sloppiest games of the regular season thus far.
Clutch Points' official Twitter page was all of us last night:
Side note on John Wall: it's nice to see him having a bit of a comeback season in a reserve role with the Lakers' Crypto.com neighbors.
The king of dumb late-game collapses, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers, didn't disappoint last night, as Philadelphia surrendered an 18-point fourth quarter advantage thanks to a variety of knuckle-headed turnovers. Must-follow NBA personality Molly Morrison acknowledged her mistake in turning the game off with a bit too much time left for L.A. to make things interesting:
Another fun NBA Twitter follow, Rob Perez, noted that Philadelphia was still up by 16 points with just 3:51 left in the contest, and that their collapse was, well, quite spectacular. L.A. capitalized, yes, but it also had a lot of luck from the opposition.
After having just 10 turnovers through the game's first three quarters, the Sixers suddenly couldn't hold on to the ball, surrendering another 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter!
Perez's sentiment was more or less echoed by Michael Corvo of Clutch Points -- it was more of a Sixers collapse than a Lakers rally, though certainly L.A. capitalized:
Postgame, Laker Central noted what a lot of us were thinking following that putrid overtime frame: it's time for L.A. vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka to make some moves, at least starting on December 15th. The team is too loaded with small guards on pricey deals who can't shoot. It needs shooting wings. Even if L.A. opts to keep the overpaid-but-good Russell Westbrook, it would behoove the club to try to move on from one or both of Kendrick Nunn's $5.3 million expiring contract and Patrick Beverley's $13 million salary. Beverley, still a plus defender despite now being a terrible scorer, is surprisingly still a starter. Nunn is out of the rotation, and was a healthy scratch last night.
Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen And Roll notes that, following that exciting and unexpected L.A. push, the team still managed to disappoint fans in OT:
LeBron James actually acknowledged postgame that he and his Laker teammates were exhausted (but really, he was exhausted) when the contest rolled over to overtime. Players were blowing layups. Fans noticed:
Here's one more indictment of the defeat for good measure:
