LeBron James had 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, while Taurean Prince hit a tiebreaking three-pointer with 1 minute, 17 seconds to play on Sunday as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 106-103 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Anthony Davis had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who beat the surging Clippers for the second straight time after losing 11 in a row to their city rivals.
While James and Davis carried them, Prince and D’Angelo Russell also made key plays down the stretch as the Lakers hung on for just their fourth victory in 14 games since winning the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.
Photo: AFP
“We played like we needed to win, like it was a must-win,” Davis said. “We competed on both sides of the basketball. We’ve just got to build off of it. We know what we have in the locker room. We know what it takes to win and we displayed that tonight.”
James set the tone shortly after halftime with a ferocious dunk on Paul George and the Lakers never trailed in the fourth quarter, despite blowing a 10-point lead. They still could not exhale until Norman Powell’s three-point attempt rattled in and out at the buzzer.
“Overtime,” James said when asked what he was thinking while he watched Powell’s shot. “It looked like it was good for sure. Right on line... We’ve got to continue to get better. Try to use this to catapult [us to play] a little bit better. Better play from us, but it still don’t take away from the fact of how we’ve been playing like the last 11, 12 games.”
Paul George scored 22 points, while Ivica Zubac had 22 points and 19 rebounds for the Clippers, whose five-game winning streak ended.
Kawhi Leonard scored 15 points, while James Harden had 15 points and nine assists in the childhood Lakers fan’s first game against them since getting traded home to the Clippers, who have still won 14 of their past 17.
“We just didn’t play a good offensive game,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “There was a bad flow to the game offensively. I thought our defense was pretty good, but offensively we couldn’t get in a flow or a rhythm.”
Elsewhere on Sunday, the Grizzlies eclipsed the Suns 121-115, the Cavaliers edged the Spurs 117-115, the Pelicans crushed the Kings 133-100, the Mavericks mauled the Timberwolves 115-108, the Nuggets thrashed the Pistons 131-114, the Raptors walloped the Warriors 133-118, the Magic downed the Hawks 117-110 and the Trail Blazers beat the Nets 134-127.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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