LeBron James had 35 points and 11 rebounds on Wednesday, while Austin Reaves scored seven of his 15 points in overtime as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Los Angeles Clippers with a 130-125 victory.
D’Angelo Russell scored 27 points, while Anthony Davis had 27 points and 10 rebounds for the short-handed Lakers, who beat their local rivals for the first time since July 2020.
The 17-time NBA champions had not beaten the Clippers on the Lakers’ home court at their shared arena since Christmas 2016, also losing 11 in a row.
Photo: AP
“That was known, but at the same time, for me, and I [think] I speak for everybody, you want to win every game,” Reaves said about the skids.
With James Harden watching in street clothes on the Clippers’ bench, Kawhi Leonard scored 38 points in their second loss of the season.
Paul George scored 20 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, including eight points in the final minute, before fouling out 30 seconds into overtime.
Photo: Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY
“We played hard,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We just didn’t play smart at times. [Poor] shot selection, and [we needed to] keep our turnovers down a little bit. I can’t fault the effort.”
Although the Lakers used just eight players due to five significant injury absences, they rallied from an early 19-point deficit before blowing an eight-point lead in the final 90 seconds of regulation time.
George, who had six three-pointers, hit three free throws with 17 seconds left to tie it. Russell had an open shot at the buzzer, but missed.
The Lakers took a five-point lead in overtime when Reaves stole the ball from Leonard, drove the court and flung an alley-oop to James for a one-handed slam with 2 minutes, 12 seconds left.
Leonard answered with a three-point play and his fifth three-pointer, but Reaves hit two free throws with 48 seconds left and Russell Westbrook missed a tying three-point attempt before Christian Wood threw down a vicious putback dunk for the Lakers with nine seconds to play.
James added 12 rebounds and seven assists in the 38-year-old’s latest standout game of his 21st NBA season.
“It’s just been a process this year of us figuring each other out as a group,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, it was:
‧ Celtics 155, Pacers 104
‧ Hawks 130, Wizards 121
‧ Heat 105, Nets 109
‧ Jazz 133, Grizzlies 109
‧ Knicks 89, Cavaliers 95
‧ Mavericks 114, Bulls 105
‧ Pistons 101, Trail Blazers 110
‧ Raptors 130, Bucks 111
‧ Rockets 128, Hornets 119
‧ Thunder 106, Pelicans 110
‧ T’wolves 110, Nuggets 89
‧ Warriors 102, Kings 101
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