Nba results: LeBron returns, the Lakers overturn New York

He didn’t have to play. He ended up making a difference, to drag the Lakers to the most sensational comeback of the season. LeBron James returned to the field after 5 stoppages, and recovered the yellow and purple, with a triple double of 29 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists served to bend the Knicks 122-115 in extra time, rising from -21. He didn’t win alone, with the defense muzzling New York in the second half and Anthony Davis and Malik Monk as phenomenal as he was. Unlike Russell Westbrook, so disastrous that coach Vogel kept him on the bench in the fourth period.

The Westbrook case

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“We won, that’s the only thing that counts,” says Westbrook trying to crack a smile, reminding him repeatedly that he doesn’t want us to talk about him and the extra bench but about what the team did. But Russ is a case, one that the Lakers have to solve. He finished with 5 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists, shot 1/10 from the field. “He was having a tough night, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I thought that since the ball would be in LeBron’s hands so much in extra time, given how he was playing, we would have a better chance of winning with someone else on the pitch ”is coach Vogel’s explanation. The way they are built, the Lakers need Westbrook to be much better than that, but relations with the manager have long since cracked and this bench, despite the denials of circumstance, is another wound. Also because Westbrook did not get a warning from the coach: he just found himself on the bench. “No, he didn’t tell me anything. But that’s okay, we won ”.

The keys

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The Lakers (26-28) needed this win. LeBron’s return has given them the leader to ask for both guidance and heavy baskets in difficult times. Against New York came the confirmation that Anthony Davis (28 points, 17 rebounds and 4 blocks) is again the defensive dominator he was in the bubble title season. “Being out due to injury made him hungry again,” praised LeBron. And that Malik Monk, 29 points including the 18 who overturned the game in the 3rd quarter, is that spark capable of igniting the team. “It made us find the rhythm, it gave us back energy”. New York (24-29), in their fifth defeat in six games, experienced all the ups and downs of this disappointing season in just one match. The best was RJ Barrett, who set the new career high at 36 points, with Julius Randle (32 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists) for one game back as last year’s All Star and not the sulky player. on the verge of a sensational break with the Knicks this season. New York pays for the blackout of the third quarter, in which he threw a game he was controlling, and the inability in extra time to overcome the defensive wall of the Lakers. This defeat is another brick on the hopes of straightening a season born dreaming of being protagonists like last year: the harsh reality is that, if 2021-22 ended today, the Knicks would not even make the Play-In.

The match

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Barrett explodes with 17 points in the first quarter and New York is a perfect machine for baskets, a hurricane that touches +21 and closes the first half 71-56. Monk is the alarm clock for the hosts and in the third period alone he scores more points (18) than all the Knicks (13), suddenly unable to make a basket. The Lakers start the last quarter ahead 87-84 and seem in control when LeBron, leveled up, makes 108-99 with 2’24 ”to play. The unleashed Barrett, however, makes 111-111 from 3 with 8 ”on the clock and to decree a winner you need the extra. It is James who sets the first basket and launches the Lakers’ mini escape: the Knicks do not give up, but when with 23 ”on the clock Davis crushes the 122-115 they have to raise the white flag.

LA Lakers: James 29 (11/17 from two, 2/7 from three, 1/2 free throws), Monk 29 (7/12, 4/8, 3/4), Davis 28. Bounces: Davis 17. Assist: James 10 .

New York:Barrett 36 (9/18, 4/10, 6/9 tl), Randle 32, Fournier 15. Rimbalzi: Randle 16. Assist: Randle 7.