For the better part of three quarters, the Los Angeles Lakers trailed the Toronto Raptors and Anthony Davis having to leave with an eye injury in the third quarter only made the task of coming back that much more difficult. But LeBron James led the charge and the Lakers not only completed the comeback, but dominated the Raptors in the fourth quarter for a 20-point victory.
James’ triple-double led the way as the Lakers picked up their second consecutive win, and afterwards he was happy with the team staying even keeled after falling behind early.
“It’s a 48-minute game. Obviously, you want to be as great as you can be throughout 48 minutes, but you just stay kind of even keel,” LeBron said after the win. “I mean, I’ve learned that over my career. Just kind of stay even keel, and you keep working on the habits, you keep doing what you need to do, I think the game will turn around and I think we did that.
“We did that close the end of the first half, big-time three by DLo to close that half out. And then, after the first couple minutes of the third, we were able to start ramping it back up defensively and offensively. So it’s a good step for us.”
The Lakers closed their deficit to just two points by the half and then took things over in the third before pulling away in the fourth. One big reason was LeBron and his passing as he recorded his third triple-double of the season with 19 points, 10 rebounds and a season-high 16 assists.
He secured triple-double with under two minuted remaining in the game, just before he and the other starters checked out. With LeBron still sitting at nine rebounds, one fan actually yelled that he needed one more for the triple-double and he made sure to get it.
“He definitely yelled at me. Got my attention, so, ‘one more rebound.’ So I got one more, and I pointed at him to acknowledge that I was listening,” James said.
LeBron needed 1 more rebound for a triple double and says he snagged it cause a fan got his attention pic.twitter.com/kEzRcB4pCf
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 11, 2024
And the Lakers star also reminded everyone that his playmaking remains his best talent.
“It’s always been my biggest threat,” LeBron added. “I’ve always got a kick out of seeing my teammates succeed and being able to attract defenses and being able to read and put them just trying to put the ball on time, on target, towards the rim. Was able to catch Jaxson [Hayes] for a couple lobs at the rim, AR for a couple threes. Find Cam [Reddish], find guys.
“So that’s always been my basketball pleasure, being able to just kind of read the game and put the ball like I say, For guys, just to be able to just shoot, layup, dunk, whatever it is.”
LeBron James picked up slack with Anthony Davis out
LeBron James did an outstanding job of finding the likes of Austin Reaves, Cam Reddish and Jaxon Hayes all night long and it was necessary with Anthony Davis out due to that eye injury.
James knew he had to step up in other areas to with the team’s best player out.
“I mean, obviously, AD is a big-time rebounder, so I have to pick up some of the slack with the defensive rebounder,” LeBron said. “And then, with AD out, taken a lot of eyes off AD because he’s putting so much pressure on the defense this season that now eyes get shifted to other guys. So now I take some of that responsibility, something I’ve been able to do quite a while. So it’s not hard for me to be able to tap into that, even though that’s not kind of been my role.”
It takes everyone stepping up to make up for Davis being out, but LeBron proved that he can still lead this Lakers team when necessary and it helped them walk away with another win.
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