With the series tied 1-1 heading into Game 3, LeBron James and Anthony Edwards both showed up in a big way for the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively.
With Luka Doncic dealing with an illness, James knew he had to pick up a lot of the slack on both ends of the court and finished with 38 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 41 minutes.
The game was tied at 103 heading into the final minutes as L.A. was hanging in there on the road. Unfortunately though, Edwards took over late as Minnesota ended the game on a 13-1 run to close out the victory and take a 2-1 series lead.
Edwards also filled up the statsheet with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, but after a big win from his team, he couldn’t help but marvel at what James did to keep the Lakers in it, via SportsCenter:
“He was incredible. He did everything he could in his power to try to will them to a win. He was shooting it from Yucatan. For sure, he was shooting it crazy. He caught one of them in transition and I was like kinda closing out and I’m like ‘He not about to shoot this.’ And he launched. I’m not gonna lie, it was fun to be watching him and competing against him today, for sure.”
James and Edwards got close when they were teammates last summer on the USA Olympic team. LeBron knows how special of a talent Edwards is and also shared praise for the 23-year-old after Game 3, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“You guys know how much praise I have for Ant and his development over the years. We had a hell of a summer and I love everything about Ant. In the course of an playoff series and things of that nature, when you have your guy step up for you, it allows you to be able to crack the seams of defenses throughout the course of the game.”
While it was great to see James find his form offensively, Edwards also looked as comfortable as can be, so the Lakers will need to find some sort of wrinkle to slow him down if they want to get back into this series.
LeBron James acknowledges Lakers have no room for error in postseason
Unfortunately, self-inflicted wounds cost the Lakers in Game 3 as they had 16 turnovers and a number of other preventable errors. With margins so thin in the playoffs, LeBron James knows that can’t happen if L.A. wants to advance.
“First of all, in the postseason, there is no room for error. In the regular season, you’re able to make up for certain things where you can have a little bit of room for error… In the postseason, obviously you’re not gonna play a perfect game. But the more that you make mistakes on top of mistakes, things that can be controlled, it’s not gonna give the an opportunity to have the best possible chance to win. They had 13 more goals at the rim than we did. That can be the game right there. We had 78 attempts, they had 91. That’s just with live-ball turnovers.”
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