LOS ANGELES — The layup LeBron James hit to tie the game for the Los Angeles Lakers late in a Game Four win over Memphis was recognizable for followers of his career, but much of what James did throughout the victory was indeed very new.
In a postgame episode of the Locked On Lakers podcast, hosts Brian and Andy Kamenetzky broke down James’ performance and the Lakers win to go up 3-1 in the series.
“When some of those 22 points came is just as significant,” Brian Kamenetzky said. “Clutch baskets driving to the hoop in a game where that was not exactly an easy place to get to.”
Memphis had a lead late in the game after several threes by Grizzlies wing Desmond Bane and a breakaway dunk by star point guard Ja Morant.
Despite the team being largely assembled on the fly at the NBA trade deadline, the Lakers fought back to take Game Four.
“You could see just how badly LeBron wanted this game, and the entire Lakers team played really hard,” Andy Kameneztky said. “But nobody on that team wanted it more than LeBron.”
The Lakers managed to win largely by surviving the muck of the game. There may be no player better-equipped to do that than James.
“For all the ugliness of this game, and there was a lot of it, it was also a really intense and exciting game,” Andy Kamenetzky said. “It was also tense because I was quite frankly worried one of the players wouldn’t survive.”
Memphis hosts a do-or-die Game Five on Wednesday night at 7:30 ET.