After a rollercoaster of a road trip, the Los Angeles Lakers returned home and were able to take care of business against a feisty Houston Rockets team on Saturday night.
The Lakers beat the Rockets 107-97, a much-needed win and a good momentum builder ahead of the quarterfinals of the In-Season Tournament. Los Angeles got strong performances from Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves, though LeBron James may have stole the show.
James had a relatively quiet night by his standards as he only scored 16 points, but he got the Crypto.com Arena crowd hyped with an amazing 360 layup. When asked about it postgame, James simply said he was trying to score.
“I don’t know, just trying to make plays,” James said. “I felt like that was the best way to kind of finish that one. Happy I was able to bring it home, that’s for sure. Fans got into it, crowd got into it. And our bench got into it. Got us a technical. We’ll take it. We’ll take that one.”
We are not worthy, @KingJames. ?pic.twitter.com/C0YjdnVdp0
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 3, 2023
Both the crowd and bench went wild after James converted and he knew it was good by their reactions despite not seeing that it went in.
“I went by the fans’ reaction that I made it. I definitely knew I put the right English on it and I had to right angle. But as I was falling, I lost track of the ball, but the fans let me know that I made it, and then my teammates, by them running on the floor or whatever they did on there allowed me to see it on the Jumbotron. I couldn’t stop the play because of the technical.”
Anthony Davis had the same look as everyone did when James made the layup and even said that the King is just trying things at this point of his career.
“It never ceases to amaze me what he’s able to do,” Davis said. “It was a crazy layup, crazy shot. We got a tech for it so we knew it was that crazy. But like I said before, I think at this point in his career he’s done everything so he literally goes out and tries stuff to see what works. It was a good shot.”
James always finds a way to defy Father Time and his layup is a reminder that he’s far from the normal 38 year old.
LeBron James and Ime Udoka play coy about altercation
There were a few technical fouls handed out between the Lakers and Rockets, with Ime Udoka being ejected after exchanging words with James. However, the two played coy when asked about what was said.
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