Lakers: 10 Points In 35 Seconds Helps L.A. Take Sixers To OT
Your Los Angeles Lakers almost snagged a victory from the jaws of defeat tonight on the road against a mostly-healthy Philadelphia 76ers squad... before some questionable lineup decisions and, maybe, sheer exhaustion doomed them in an overtime to forget. L.A. ultimately ran out of gas late, falling 133-122 to the Sixers in OT. Los Angeles fell to a 10-15 record for the 2022-23 season, while Philadelphia rose to a 13-12 start to their year.
During the first half, Sixers All-Star center Joel Embiid led Philadelphia's attack, finishing the first two quarters with a near-perfect 25 points on 10-of-11 field goal shooting (including 2-of-3 three-point shooting) and five rebounds. L.A. kept things close, thanks to the scoring and playmaking of, um, Austin Reaves, who had a team-high 15 points plus four assists in the first half. LeBron James chipped in 12. The Sixers led 61-59 at the break.
Embiid reminded everyone in this national ESPN game why he finished second in MVP voting last season:
In the second half, guard De'Anthony Melton took on much of the scoring burden for the Sixers, while Anthony Davis did likewise for the Lakers in a big way. Both players chipped in 25 points apiece in the third and fourth quarters for their respective clubs. LeBron James also showed that he still has plenty of juice left in the tank:
The Lakers had plenty of fight throughout much of the third quarter. Check out this offense-to-defense clip, featuring a Russell Westbrook steal, an Austin Reaves behind-the-back dish, and an emphatic Anthony Davis flush:
When Los Angeles subsequently fell behind by as much as 18 points in the fourth quarter, the game felt all but over. Though the Lakers closed the gap somewhat, the Sixers were leading 119-110 with just 34.8 seconds remaining in regulation. It felt as if the evening was coming to a close.
But a funny thing happened on the way to an easy Philly W.
Sixers head coach Doc Rivers employed some hockey substitutions late, but it did little to quell a 10-1 Lakers finish. The Sixers coughed up the ball three times in that window, and the non-LeBron James Lakers on the floor made sure to capitalize.
Take a look at the happy Lakers chaos right here:
Austin Reaves and subsequently Anthony Davis, normally solid free-throw shooters, missed two critical takes at the charity stripe in the waning seconds of regulation that could have helped L.A. win the game outright.
It took Los Angeles basically all of its remaining energy reserves to rally back and force the overtime period. The team had an absolutely terrible overtime run, in part due to some highly questionable Darvin Ham rotation decisions (we'll explore that in a subsequent post). Lakers players were straight-up blowing layups!
When the dust had settled, the Sixers wound up outscoring the Lakers 13-2 in the OT period. Harden scored nine points alone of that Philadelphia total.
Three-point shooting remained an issue for L.A. The Lakers went a decent 11-of-31 from long range through 53 minutes of basketball (35%), while the Sixers shot 18-of-40 from deep (45%) through the same duration -- that's a 21-point swing.
Davis finished with yet another double-double in defeat, scoring 31 points on 9-of-13 shooting and pulling down 12 rebounds. He also notched a team-best +16 plus-minus in 36:10, and was the only Laker aside from Patrick Beverley to finish with a positive plus-minus.
Embiid won the battle of All-NBA centers against Davis, scoring 38 points on 14-of-19 shooting, grabbing 12 boards and passing for five assists. Melton scored a career-high 33 points of his own.
The Brow also swatted away two blocks and grabbed two steals. Austin Reaves continued his hot shooting this season, scoring 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting (including 4-of-6 from long range) and dishing out five dimes.
James (23 points on 9-of-22 shooting), Walker (15 points on 6-of-11 shooting), and Russell Westbrook (12 points on 4-of-14 shooting) were the other three Lakers to finish in double period, again during an overtime game. Not ideal.
On the bright side, L.A. should handily have enough ammunition to beat the lowly Detroit Pistons on Sunday, in the final game of their road trip.
