The Los Angeles Lakers continued their road-trip through the Eastern Conference with a win in Brooklyn over the Nets. Led by Lebron James, who was named the captain of the Western Conference earlier this Thursday, the LAL posted a 128-113 victory.
James was inspired not only with the All-Star honors but also with the fact that he met his old teammate, Kyrie Irving, with whom he won the 2016 NBA title in Cleveland.
Eventually, he ended the night with a triple-double, scoring 27 points, having 12 boards, and 10 assists with 11 hits in 19 shots. He is now just 17 points away from reaching Kobe Bryant on the all-time scorer’s list. And interestingly he will try to jump over Black Mamba in his home town, Philadelphia, this Saturday.
Yet, LeBron stated that he doesn’t chase the numbers and that he never intended to do the same.
“Just the overall point of my game is what means more to me: being an all-around player, being able to be successful on the floor, and being able to contribute to the franchises that I played for, the three franchises I played for so far in my career.”
On the other side, Kyrie Irving scored 20 points, but was far less valuable than LBJ. Uncle Drew had four assists and three boards, shooting 7-for-17 from the field. It seems that after his recent comeback on the court, the form of the team from Brooklyn severely worsened. The meetings in the locker room, only prove that the chemistry in the group is interrupted. Throughout the previous 14 events, Brooklyn has 12 defeats, and also they’ve lost the last five in a row.
“We just have to fight even more — that’s really what it comes down to. We have to have that mentality coming into games that, although we are undersized at times in matchups — we still have to do the little things,” Kyrie stated when addressing the journalists.
The Nets were behind 13 points midway through the third period, but got down to just one basket, with 50 seconds left in the same, 95-94.
In the next couple of minutes, the guests from LA made a 26-2 series which knocked out the home team and forced many fans inside the Barclays Center to hit the exits.
Taurean Prince had 18 points for the Nets, Caris LeVert 16, while Wilson Chandler added 15. Spencer Dinwiddie was all over the court, posting just seven points, but recording 13 dimes and 7 rebounds.
On the other side, among the Lakers, the next best things after James were Kyle Kuzma and Anthony Davis who had 16 points each. AD added 11 rebounds on top of that also.
Danny Green scored 14, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 11. The Lakers shot 50% from behind the three-point line, hitting 19 of 38 downtown shots. Meanwhile, the Nets were also very good, 21 of 46, 45.7%, but other aspects of their game weren’t at the required level to beat the LAL.
Up next, the Nets head across town to meet the Knicks at Madison, while the Lakers travel to Philadelphia to face the 76ers.
