Before Sunday night’s game, LeBron James wasn’t motivated solely by Dillon Brooks’ slights against him.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar took to Instagram on Saturday night and wrote under a graphic showing that he had 108 games with at least 30 points since arriving in Los Angeles in 2018: “But I just came here to make films! Isn’t that what you said, right!?!?”
This chart needs to be updated.
James scored a season-high 37 points, including the free throw with 1.9 seconds left, as the Lakers held off the Houston Rockets 105-104 on Sunday night.
It was James’ fifth 30-point game this season and his fourth in his last seven.
“Sometimes you have to remind people of that. So that’s what it was,” James said of the chart.
Alperen Sengun’s layup tied the game with four seconds left when the Lakers called a timeout. Austin Reaves passed it to James, who was fouled by Tari Eason while driving inside. James missed the first free throw, but made the second.
Houston, out of a timeout, brought the ball to midcourt, but Brooks’ 3-point attempt was off-line.
“I liked the way we fought back and kept fighting. We just didn’t play smart at the end,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said.
James scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and gave the Lakers their fifth victory in the last six games.
Earlier in the game, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer became the fourth player in league history with at least 10,500 assists (he finished with eight and is at 10,504). He also tied Vince Carter for seventh on the 3-point made list with 2,290, and passed Clyde Drexler for eighth on the steals list with 2,208.
“This is the LeBron we all knew and loved over these 21 years,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
James and Brooks, who have had a nice rivalry dating back to last season’s playoff series between the Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies, put on another entertaining show.
James received a technical foul for shoving Brooks early in the third quarter, but then made a “too small” move on the court after scoring against Brooks late in the quarter.
“He’s a great competitor. I like going against him. And he was playing basketball tonight, that’s for sure. He shot the ball exceptionally well and kept them in the game,” James said.
Anthony Davis added 27 points and 10 rebounds, but fouled out with 58 seconds remaining. Reaves came off the bench and had 17 points.
Brooks led the Rockets with 24 points, including a season-high six 3-pointers, and Sengun had 23. Houston has lost two straight after five straight wins.
FOLLOWING
Rockets: At Golden State Monday night.
Lakers: Host Utah on Tuesday in the in-season tournament.
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