Lakers News: LA Blows Late-Game Opportunity, Falls 113-112 To Sixers
Your Los Angles Lakers continue to surprise me. The team seemed thoroughly outmatched against Joel Embiid, James Harden and the rest of the mostly-healthy visiting Philadelphia 76ers, and though nobody played much defense for the game's first 46 or so minutes (with a few notable exceptions), LA very much held its own throughout the game...
...Until its final seconds, when Russell Westbrook pulled a Russell Westbrook, and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Shorthanded without three starters and one critical role player, the Lakers trotted out their 24th starting lineup of the season, a taller group than we usually see, against a lengthy Philly frontline: Dennis Schröder at the point, 6'6" Troy Brown Jr. at shooting guard, 6'6" Juan Toscano-Anderson at small forward (he started at power forward Thursday), 6'9" LeBron James at power forward, and 6'10" Thomas Bryant in for Anthony Davis at center.
In the first quarter, James became only the second player in league history to surpass 38,000 career regular season points, behind Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
By the end of the game, James would find himself just 364 points shy of Cap's 38,387-point total.
Thomas Bryant, not exactly known as a great defender, showed off some hops on that end of the floor with this snazzy block over massive but relatively ground-bound Sixers All-Star center Joel Embiid:
James led the way for LA in the first, with 16 early points, while Embiid had 14 for the other side. The Sixers led at the break, 33-32.
Brown, who has quietly had a really nice season as one of the Lakers' better two-way wings (that might not be saying a ton, but still), quickly proved who useful he can be for LA with a little extended run in the game's second quarter:
For a scary second there, LA looked to be running out of big men when Thomas Bryant appeared to roll his right ankle. He stayed in the game for a bit, but was eventually taken out in favor of Wenyen Gabriel. Bryant remained on the bench for a bit as LA's trainers examined him.
Annoyingly, Dennis Schröder didn't score a single field goal the entire half. He has quietly had a rough go of it during this three-game losing streak, after his scoring was such a big part of the team's preceding five-game winning streak.
Here as usual is your obligatory "I can't believe he's in his 20th season" highlight clip of LeBron James:
The fastbreak efforts of Westbrook and James helped the Lakers go on a 9-0 tear to finish the half up by a sliver, 58-57. This was made all the more impressive by the fact that LA had gone a collective 1-of-8 from deep in the half (that make being Brown's). James and Embiid led all scorers with 22 points a pop for their respective clubs. Westbrook was already in triple-double territory with 11 points, seven boards and eight dimes.
This is not to say Westbrook was infallible in the half, however, as he occasionally forced awkward alley-oop attempts:
LA managed to stay level with Philadelphia during a breakout third quarter for Embiid, who scored 17 in the frame.
What was shaping up to be an excellent night for Russell Westbrook (remember, at the time we couldn't have known what was to come) continued to impress the home fans. He made a four-point play midway through the period!
Philly was up a possession over Los Angeles, 86-83, heading into the fourth quarter.
James remained active and engaged in the fourth quarter, and didn't settle for jumpers nearly as much as he did in his inefficient Thursday night performance against the Dallas Mavericks.
Thomas Bryant didn't seem any worse for wear after returning to the game post-ankle scare.
The game was a back-and-forth affair for much of the final quarter, so let's just unpack the contest's final minute and change. With LA up by a point, 109-108, Georges Niang made a corner triple to give the Sixers a two-point edge, 111-109:
Joel Embiid then made a one-legged jumper at the nail to put Philly up four, 113-109, with 45.5 seconds remaining in regulation.
James drove inside with a full head of steam, drawing Sixers defenders towards him, and he subsequently dished out a no-look pass to Troy Brown Jr. in the corner, who brought the Lakers to within a point of Philly, 113-112, with 36 seconds remaining.
Westbrook got stuck guarding Embiid of a James Harden pick. Rather than take Brodie to the rack (despite being nine inches taller and 80 pounds heavier than him), Embiid settled for a Nowitzki-esque one-legged fadeaway jumper, which promptly ricocheted off the rim and into the waiting hands of Westbrook.
With 15 seconds remaining on the shot clock, head coach Darvin Ham inscrutably opted not to call a time-out to set up a play.
Russell Westbrook found Embiid draped all over him. Rather than dish off to, say, LeBron James, Russ instead opted to go one-on-one against Embiid, isolating towards the left block. He lost his dribble, regained it and scrambled inside as the shot clock wound down -- but hilariously got blocked to oblivion (while Sixers power forward Georges Niang drove baseline to double), without actually getting off a shot attempt.
Time expired with LA losing by a point, 113-112. It was the kind of hilariously shortsighted late-game performances that helped Los Angeles lose so many winnable games last season. Westbrook has generally been playing with better self-control in late game situations recently, but this regression was a big disappointment.
With the victory, the Sixers are now 27-16 for the year, and a season-high 11 games over .500. With the defeat, the Lakers fall to a middling 10-10 home record and a 19-24 record on the season overall.
James finished with 35 points, 10 assists and eight boards. Westbrook broke his own record for the most double-doubles ever by a bench player with his fourth tonight, a 20-point, 14-rebound, 11-assist effort that will never be remembered because he blew the game in its waning seconds.
The Lakers will have to forgive and forget, as tomorrow they'll host Russ's old club, the lowly Houston Rockets, on the second night of a back-to-back.
