NBA: LeBron turns up late – clips stay on top

The Los Angeles Lakers have beaten the Indiana Pacers at their home Staples Center after the bitter bankruptcy in Denver. LeBron James delivers thereby again a Gala. The city rival, the L.A. Clippers, also win and remain the best team of the Western Conference.

The Lakers started against Indiana like the fire brigade and after only twelve minutes the hosts were leading 38-15, so there were many signs of a blowout, also because the visitors again had to do without their star in Victor Oladipo.

But the Pacers also have a really strong bench, as the guest performance in L.A. showed. Domantas Sabonis submitted another strong application for the Sixth Man of the Year Award and led the Bench Mob with 20 points (plus 15 rebounds). Indiana nibbled bit by bit on the deficit and after Tyreke Evans’ triumvirate in the middle of the third quarter, the Pacers were suddenly in front for the first time (66-69).

So LeBron James had to react and the King scored the next five points, which opened an 11-2 run of the Lakers. The hosts took command again – but not for long. Sabonis reduced to one point five minutes before the end, before LeBron had to answer again from the distance (92:88).

The LeBron-Show (12 points in the last 4:30 minutes) was the final game of the tournament, which was now in charge of all the field goals of the Lakers and thus mainly responsible for the fact that the hosts were able to set themselves apart in the final phase.

The problems of the Lakers were the same despite the victory. The team again suffered far too many ball losses (18), and 56.5 percent of the free-throw line is simply not acceptable. The fact that it was still enough to win can be explained by the once again solid defense, the Pacers only scored 37 percent out of the field.

James scored 38 points (15/27 FG), 9 rebounds and 7 assists again a very decent statline and got support from Josh Hart (13, 6/7 FG) and Brandon Ingram (14). Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (11) also sunk some important threes, while Moritz Wagner was not used. For the Pacers, Sabonis, Bojan Bogdanovic (14) and Thaddeus Young (11, 5 steals) attracted attention with a mostly solid defense against LeBron.

Like the Lakers, the city’s rival also got off to a good start. The Clippers gave the Kings a whopping 42 points in the first quarter, so it was a relaxed affair for the western leader. But Sacramento is carved from a different piece of wood this season and also countered with 42 points in the second quarter, leaving everything open for the break (68:71).

It was interesting that the otherwise so dominant bench of the Clippers allowed big runs and this time the starters had clear advantages. The Kings had two dominant reservists in Bogdan Bogdanovic and No.2-Pick Marvin Bagley, who scored diligently and kept Sacramento in the game to some extent, even if the Clippers led again with two figures at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Bogdanovic brought the hosts up to four more points (108-112), but Tobias Harris and Montrezl Harrell provided an 11-2 Clippers run from which Sacramento could not recover, because Danilo Gallinari also provided some important points for the visitors.

The top scorers of the Clippers were Harris (28, 11/17 FG) and Harrell (24, 8/10 FG), Rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 17, Gallinari and Avery Bradley 16 points each. Bogdanovic scored 26 points for the Kings, while Bagley could not return after a good 18 points (plus 10 boards) in the fourth quarter due to back problems. De’Aaron Fox scored 17 points and 9 assists, while Willie Cauley-Stein (17, 10 rebounds) doubled.