Dave McMenaminESPN Staff Writer4 min read
LOS ANGELES — Trailing by more than a dozen points entering the fourth quarter and facing an 0-2 start to the season unless against the Phoenix Suns, Lakers head coach Davin Hamm had to make a decision — either stick with the planned 30 Minute guideline for LeBron James’ playing time, allow him to play only about half of the final frame, or push the envelope and see if Los Angeles can ride the 21-year-old veteran to victory.
Hamm chose the latter, and James nearly single-handedly beat the Suns throughout the entire fourth quarter as the Lakers bounced back from a disappointing first loss in Denver with a 100-95 win.
“He asked me if I could play (the whole) quarter, and I looked at the time and the score and what was going on in the game, and it was an easy answer for myself,” James said after scoring 21 points. Got 9 assists and 8 rebounds in 35 minutes. “I know how much hard work I put in to get through the quarterfinals or whatever happens. I know we’ve definitely got a system in place, but tonight required me to step out of the box.”
In the fourth quarter, the Lakers defeated the Suns 28-11. James scored 10 points, including four consecutive layups, breaking the tie 91-91 and giving the Lakers a 4-point lead with 41 seconds left in the game.
In order to help the 38-year-old star get extra rest, Ham reserved three timeouts in the fourth game. He called one with 4:55 left and another with 3:07 left, and the Lakers were beaten twice more by the Suns. Former Lakers head coach Frank Vogel used a challenge to overturn an out-of-bounds call with 2:19 left and asked for time to establish offensive possession with 26.6 seconds left.
“We dragged our feet most of the first half and things didn’t go well,” Ham said. “He has that spirit, that intensity of carrying the team on his shoulders. I had timeouts. So I went to him and I said, ‘How do we feel? What do we want to do?’ And he answered my question Question. And you saw the results. So, we took advantage of a couple of timeouts to catch our breath.”
Anthony Davis and James helped Los Angeles complete the comeback. Davis scored 13 of his team-high 30 points in the fourth quarter, along with 12 rebounds, three steals and three blocks.
Los Angeles lost to the defending champion Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, going scoreless in the second half.
In a postgame interview broadcast on TNT, James firmly dismissed criticism of Davis’ performance.
“We don’t care about the criticism of AD,” James said. “We don’t care. Nothing bothers us. AD doesn’t care. I don’t know if people get this yet. AD doesn’t care. He’s not on social media, so he doesn’t see any trash.” He rarely speaks unless it’s to us , so we don’t care, and he definitely doesn’t. He just goes out and does his job and we’re happy to have AD. “
True to form, Davis didn’t even mention his individual offensive output when asked about Los Angeles’ fourth-quarter performance, instead focusing on the team’s defensive effort.
“Just being able to stop and rebound,” Davis said after the Lakers held the Suns to a tie on 5-for-20 shooting. “That’s it. We have enough offense offensively to score… just being able to stop and rebound.” Trying to lock down the defense. Especially when you have a guy like Kevin Durant out there, it makes it tough. And then just making sure other guys don’t beat you. That’s what we try to do.”
Durant, who played without Suns stars Devin Booker (sore foot) and Bradley Beal (lower back soreness), led all scorers with 39 points and passed Hakeem in the process ·Olajuwon, ranked 12th on the all-time scoring list.
“We don’t have many games left,” James said after playing Durant in their first regular-season game since Christmas 2018. Don’t know how many games we have left. So you never want to take it for granted when you’re out there with a player that’s that good, one of the best in the game. “
After that, Ham has focused on how to keep James at his best as the season progresses and Los Angeles moves toward his championship goals.
“Obviously, the recovery process starts now,” Hamm said. “But I tip my hat to him, man. He always surprises us. He cares. He cares. That’s why you see his stat line. He gave it his all for his team in Year 21, and I Just hopefully a lot of the young pros here are paying attention to what he’s doing.”