For a moment the line to the basket was open. Anthony Davis closed it quickly.
The All-Star ahead blocked Harrison Barnes & # 39; s ride on a game-tying buzz at the buzzer while the Lakers clung to a 99-97 win over the Sacramento Kings at Staples Center on Friday.
The Lakers (10-2) overcame the loss of defending steadfast Avery Bradley, who will miss the next one to two weeks with a hairline fracture in his right leg, to keep the kings for less than 100 points for the first time since October. 28. The kings, who started the season with five consecutive losses, had won four of their last five games and started the Friday matchup.
Coated by former Lakers coach Luke Walton, the kings tied the game late with a layout from Bogdan Bogdanovic, but LeBron James skipped the game-winning free throws with 5.5 seconds. The 34-year-old attacker ended with 29 points and 11 assists and sometimes seemed to rewind the clock.
James hit a right-handed tomahawk opinion on Nemanja Bjelica in the first half and stared the Kings forward with an icy look afterwards. He stretched out both arms while lying on the field after scoring a traffic layout in the third quarter and jumped across the floor after a three-pointer in the fourth. When jogging after nailing a faded mid-range jumper, James handed a high-five from former teammate J.R. Smith, who was on the right. They missed each other.
James, however, connected at the most important moment, as he hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds to go after Bogdanovic had scored the game classification a few seconds earlier. Despite Lakers guarding Alex Caruso's attempts to silence the crowd, fans brought James to a free-throw line with M-V-P singing.
Without Bradley, the Lakers were 13 behind at a certain point in the first half. The kings rained three hands. The Lakers missed their first six shots from the deep.
It was a three-pointer from Kyle Kuzma that led to a comeback in the second quarter of Lakers. The attacker contributed five straight points to a 14-0 point that turned a 13-point deficit into a short one-point lead. Kuzma finished the first half with 13 points, including 10 in the second quarter.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope started instead of the injured Bradley, but lasted less than four minutes before being replaced by Caruso. Caldwell-Pope played only nine minutes in the first half, but broke out in the fourth quarter for 12 of his season-high 16 points.
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