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dave mcmenamin
multiple authors
LOS ANGELES — A night when every player was on the field lakers Made a big play to give them a 127-125 win in overtime. denver nuggets On Saturday, perhaps there was no bigger incident than someone’s bullet being fired austin reeves.
In this case, it was an intentionally missed shot by Reeves from the throw line with 5.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Reeves fired the ball to the left in front of the rim, chased down the offensive rebound and sank a 9-foot floater with 1.9 seconds remaining, tying the score at 118–118 and forcing overtime.
“I mean, I knew I’d be missed,” said Reeves, who led L.A. with 32 points and was above 30 for the third straight game. “I wasn’t going to give the ball a chance to go in. Some people hit it over the top and they catch it by accident. But I don’t think my ball ever went more than 10 feet.”
deandre ayton Was the only Lakers player lined up on the left block, and he boxed out MVP three times Nikola Jokic Under the basket, Reeves found a clear path to carrom forward.
“It was very hard to do, and for him to tie the game basically got us the win,” luka doncic Said. “That execution was perfection.”
And it set up more late-game magic from Doncic at the end of the extra session when, with the score tied, he hit an 18-foot stepback, fadeaway jump shot with 0.5 seconds left to put the Lakers up by two. Then on Denver’s ensuing possession, he blocked former teammate Tim Hardaway Jr.3-pointer at the buzzer to seal it.
“Went to my left hand, went to my left stepback,” Doncic said. “I’ve done this many times throughout my career, so I just trust the shot.”
While Doncic — who finished with 30 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his eighth triple-double of the season — was humble about continuing his first 50-point game as a Laker with his first game-winner for the franchise, his teammate. Lebron Jamescelebrated the 27-year-old star.
“Just a big shot by a young generation of players,” James said. “He’s a great player, man. … We wanted the last shot. We wanted to put the ball in our guy’s hands. …
“This is going to be the first of many game winners like him in a Lakers uniform.”
Just as Doncic’s shot wouldn’t have happened without Reeves’ floater, Reeves’ floater wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the effort James showed with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter.
With the Lakers trailing 112–111 with 54.3 seconds remaining, James put his entire body on the floor to dive on a loose ball to make the stop. Christian Braun from receiving an offensive rebound and when forcing a jump ball at center court jamal mare Tied him on the floor.
“I told [James] After the game, I said, ‘In 23 years of watching you play in the NBA, in the three years I watched you play in high school, I’ve never seen you do a full-out extension dive like that,’ Lakers coach JJ Redick said. ‘He said, ‘You’re right, I’ve never done that.’
Redick said he told his team to treat Saturday like a playoff game, with a tiebreaker for the season-series against Denver and a postseason berth at stake. James said that message resonated, leading to the same effort across the board that he showed on that play.
“I think we’ve all heard this from our coaches when we’re younger: The first guy on the floor usually gets the ball,” said James, who finished with 17 points, six rebounds and five assists in 40 minutes of playing time. “So, at that point, I was just thinking about my little league coach, understanding the importance of it.”
Lakers also received important contributions marcus smart (21 points, five steals), who had a layup to go ahead with 46.8 seconds left in the fourth and followed that up with a 3-pointer with 30.7 seconds left in overtime; And from Deandre Ayton (nine points, nine rebounds), who had four points on 2-for-2 shooting, two rebounds and a block on Jokic in overtime.
Jokic (24 points, 16 rebounds, 14 assists) was just 1-for-4 in OT with two points and one board.
“It was only fair that everybody on the court did something, did something to help us win,” Doncic said.
The Lakers have won five consecutive games to climb to No. 3 in the Western Conference standings, and have won eight of their last nine games. They have a half-game lead at No. 4 Houston RocketsL.A. will play at Houston on Monday and Wednesday as the first two games of its upcoming six-game road trip.
“Is ‘coalesces’ a word? Is it the right word? To come together?”. Reddick asked. “I think it feels like we’re coming together pretty well right now. Still a long way to go, still a long way to go, but definitely optimistic about how we handled this run of games. … It’s big time.”
