Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes
PHILADELPHIA — LeBron James has never experienced a basketball defeat as lopsided as the one he endured in Philadelphia.
James has suffered significant losses before. The 11-man Miami Heat team he led was defeated by 36 points in the NBA Finals. In 2019, the Indiana Pacers defeated James and the Lakers by 42 points.
But the blowout was historic: When Joel Embiid had a triple-double in the third quarter, the 76ers beat the Lakers 138-94 on Monday night and lost by 44 points, and now it’s James The worst in his career dates back to 2003.
“What changes need to be made to prevent this from happening again? A lot,” James said without elaborating.
The tragic milestones keep piling up for the Lakers. This was their worst loss to the 76ers in 290 games in the series.
What’s bad is that James didn’t even get a rebound.
Well, one more thing: The Sixers beat the Lakers for the seventh time in a row.
“This is my favorite team,” Embiid said, again noting that he learned basketball through Kobe Bryant. “Anytime I play them, you want to win. But no matter what, that’s what I do every night against other teams.”
The box score tells part of the story. The 76ers made 22 three-pointers to the Lakers’ 7, and even with Embiid missing the entire fourth quarter, the 76ers still led them 40-14.
“We got killed on the three-point line,” James said. “They made shots. Credit them.”
the rest? It was just a lethargic effort from a team that seemed to give up early — the Sixers led by 25 points in the first half — and it was a great night to throw in the towel.
“Your competitive spirit has to be at a high level,” Lakers coach Davon Hamm said. “It almost has to be invulnerable to some degree. You have to fight fire with fire. They beat us.”
As the reigning NBA MVP, Embiid scored 30 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, recording his sixth career triple-double. This was Embiid’s first game of the season and seventh game in his career with more than 10 assists.
An Embiid-James matchup never really materialized. James scored 18 points in 29 minutes, but nothing he did could dent the Sixers’ lead. He has now played more minutes than any player in NBA history, including playoff time.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” James said.
Tyrese Maxey of the 76ers scored 31 points. Anthony Davis of the Lakers had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The 76ers opened the game with a three-pointer and hit 13 of 26 shots from the field, a second-half high.
Maxey drove in four runs. The Lakers kept any Sixers other than Maxey or Embiid, though, and paid the price. Patrick Beverley hit a 3-pointer in the half, and senior Marcus Morris made 3 of 3 shots. Embiid scored a goal to lead 64-39.
The Lakers made 7 of 10 three-pointers in the half.
With Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts watching from the sidelines, Embiid blocked Davis with such authority that the slap could be heard deep down the field.
Maxey scored 20 points at halftime in an attempt to bolster his chances of being named an All-Star for the first time. Embiid scored 17 points and charged for his third consecutive scoring title.
“You certainly don’t go into a game like this expecting a game like this to blow out,” 76ers head coach Nick Nurse said. “When the 3-pointers start going the way they did early on, I think it makes everybody happy. All full of energy.”
The 76ers won their 12th game early.
They also scored for trash talking when forward Paul Reed called Davis a “big loser.”
“You know, he’s going to be terrible,” Reid said during shootaround.
Both coaches were confused as to why the substitute poked Davis.
“I thought, go guard him. Good luck, Paul,” Hamm said.
It doesn’t matter. This game has never been competitive enough to worry too much about fouls and turnovers.
The 76ers are coming off a two-game losing streak and Kelly Oubre Jr. will be back soon. Oubre was averaging 16.3 points in eight games before being injured in an alleged hit-and-run accident. He participated in shootarounds and could join the Sixers on their upcoming two-game road trip.
Previous
Lakers: Play back-to-back road games at Detroit on Wednesday and Oklahoma City on Thursday.
76ers: Play at New Orleans on Wednesday and Boston on Friday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba