After dropping their last two games while being shorthanded, the Los Angeles Lakers got their big guns on Friday night with LeBron James and Anthony Davis returning to action against Joel Embiid, James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers.
It was a heavyweight matchup between two teams that have struggled early on this season. Ultimately though, the Lakers dropped their third straight game with a 133-122 loss in overtime after an incredible comeback effort to even get it to that point.
The Lakers didn’t have an answer for Embiid early as he scored Philadelphia’s first six points, also picking up two quick fouls by Davis. Lonnie Walker IV had his jump shot working early though with five points on two made buckets to give L.A. a lead into the first timeout.
Davis would later pick up another silly foul, heading to the bench with three fouls in the first seven minutes of the game. That spelled trouble for the Lakers as Embiid continued to dominate offensively against L.A.’s smaller second unit.
The 76ers went on a 16-0 run after Tobias Harris got involved with a 3-pointer, taking their first double-digit lead of the game. The Lakers finally ended their scoring drought when James hit a midrange jumper and then a 3 of his own, but the 76ers still led 31-20 after a sloppy first quarter. Embiid beat the first-quarter buzzer with a triple, giving him the same number of points as the Lakers.
Darvin Ham rolled the dice by putting Davis back into the game early in the second quarter and it paid off as the Lakers went on a run with Embiid on the bench to regain the lead. Austin Reaves with key in that with six straight points.
At what point in the second quarter the Lakers made 13 consecutive shots. The only problem was that the 76ers kept up with a number of timely 3s and ended the quarter on a 7-1 run to take a 61-59 lead into the locker room.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, Davis picked up another foul on Embiid early in the third quarter and headed to the bench again with four. Ham went to an extremely small lineup without Davis, leading to another run for Embiid and the 76ers. De’Anthony Melton was a thorn in the Lakers’ side by knocking down some open jumpers.
Again though, Reaves came in and made an impact with another 3. He also had a sweet behind-the-back pass to Davis for a dunk and another bucket to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 93-83 at the end of the third.
The 76ers began the fourth quarter on a 9-1 run with Harden drilling a 3, forcing a Lakers timeout as the game started to get out of hand.
If the Lakers wanted to have any chance of getting back in the game then they would have to respond with a run of their own. They did just that with an 11-2 spurt to get back within single digits.
After the game looked all but over with the Lakers committing some costly turnovers, L.A. went on another run late led by Davis, who finally came alive. He had 20 points in the fourth quarter and then James had a three-point play to cut it to five with a minute to play.
Melton came up big when his team needed it though, drilling an open 3 in response. Philadelphia struggled to close the game out as after some turnovers and missed free throws, the Lakers got within 3 with a chance to tie it.
After hitting a 3 on the previous possession, Reaves got another look and was fouled on the attempt. He missed one, but then the Lakers came up with a huge steal and Davis was fouled, going to the line for the win.
Unfortunately, Davis also missed a free throw so the game went to overtime.
It was all 76ers from there as the Lakers seemingly ran out of gas in overtime. In fact, the Lakers didn’t even score in the overtime period until there were 30 seconds left and the game was out of reach.
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