LeBron James Saves Lakers in Final Seconds After Nearly Choking Again

By The Wildcard October 31, 2018 at 10:25pm

LeBron James walked into Staples Center in Los Angeles on Halloween dressed as Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movies. Five hours later, he saved the Los Angeles Lakers from a horrifying ending.

The four-time MVP scored 29 points and made the game-winning free throw with 2.1 seconds left Wednesday night as the Lakers held on for a 114-113 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

“I don’t like the way we closed out the game, but for the majority of the game we played well,” James said.

Los Angeles led nearly throughout and was up 111-98 with 3:42 to go before the Mavericks went on a 15-2 run to pull even. Luka Doncic tied it at 113 with 7.2 seconds remaining on a jumper from the corner, but on the next trip down the floor James was fouled by Wesley Mathews while shooting a jump shot.

That set up what could have been a Halloween nightmare for the Lakers.

As USA Today reported:

“James, who missed two free throws late in overtime of a loss to the San Antonio Spurs last week, missed his first free throw with the score tied 113-113. With the tension cresting at Staples Center, James hit his second free throw and Dallas’ J.J. Barea missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.”

Lakers coach Luke Walton sounded relieved at the outcome.

“NBA games are never over and you have to play the game a certain way,” Walton said. “If you mess with the game, the game will mess with you and I thought we did that a little bit. Hopefully we can learn the same lesson even if it was a win.”

“You can talk about, you can preach about it, you can watch film about it. But the best teacher in life is experience.” – @KingJames https://t.co/iY04VFrNcC

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 1, 2018

JaVale McGee added 16 points and 15 rebounds, Kyle Kuzma scored 18 and Brandon Ingram had 17 for the Lakers.

Matthews led Dallas with 21 points and Harrison Barnes scored 19. The Mavericks (2-6) have lost five straight.

“I love the fight. Our first quarter was very disappointing but we battled back,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We were able to get stops in the fourth quarter and we were getting some momentum on offense.”

The Lakers scored the first eight points and led by 18 in the first quarter as they went 15 of 23 from the field and made six 3-pointers.

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Dallas trimmed the margin to 66-59 by halftime. Matthews’ driving bank shot pulled the Mavericks to 70-64 before the Lakers went on a 17-4 run — which included 10 points by James — to open their largest lead at 87-68 with 4:40 remaining in the third.

The closest the Mavericks got in the first eight minutes of the fourth was 98-90 with 8:12 left.

The Mavericks, who dropped to 0-5 on the road, are one of seven teams in the NBA without a win away from home. They have lost 10 straight road games dating back to last season.

Doncic, the second pick in the 2018 draft, said before the game that he grew up idolizing James. The teenager from Slovenia, who scored 31 points Monday night at San Antonio and is averaging 20.4 points per game, might have been in awe a bit during his first game against James as he missed his first six shots.

Doncic was able to shake off the slow start, though, as he made his final five shots from the field and finished with 14 points. James gave Doncic his jersey after the game.

The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.

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