LOS ANGELES — At age 38, LeBron James is aging gracefully. And on Monday night at the Crypto.com Arena, he had a game for the ages.
James, a four-time NBA champ and 19-time All-Star, was clutch late and finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a spine-tingling 117-111 Game 4 finish that put the Memphis Grizzlies on the ropes.
The win handed the No.7 seed Lakers a 3-1 series lead over the No.2 seed Grizzlies in their opening-round match-up. They can advance to the second round with a win at the FedEx Forum in Memphis on Wednesday (Thursday morning RP time).
And though LeBron did most of the heavy lifting in regulation and overtime, this Lakers triumph was a complete team effort.
Austin Reaves tallied 23 points and six assists. Jarred Vanderbilt had 15 points and six boards and Anthony Davis, despite struggling with just 4-of-13 shooting came alive in the second half to register 12 points and 11 rebounds.
D’Angelo Russell also came up big, drilling three straight threes that wiped out a seven-point Lakers deficit and turned it into a 99-97 lead at the 3:55 mark of the fourth quarter.
“I’m so proud of our guys, the way we fought. We found a way,” said Lakers head coach Darvin Ham after Los Angeles stood on the cusp of reaching Round 2 and potentially playing the winner of the Phoenix Suns-L.A. Clippers match-up.
Desmond Bane led the Grizz with 36 points and Ja Morant, who couldn’t get going on offense as he missed 16 of 24 field goals, accounted for 19 points. Jarren Jackson Jr chipped in 14 points and 14 rebounds.
The Grizzlies battled back from an early 15-point deficit only to fall short in the end.
Dillon Brooks had 11 points and the Memphis bench contributed 19 points. But the Grizzlies couldn’t survive another poor shooting night where they hit only 42 of 106 shots (39.6 percent) including a mere 9-of-42 (21.4 percent) from long distance.
“Obviously, LeBron gets to his right hand, which can’t happen at the end of the game. Some breakdowns for us. Very disappointing loss,” a stunned Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins said at his post-game press conference.
James sent Game 4 into overtime with a contested lay-up in the final 6.1 seconds of regulation. And with 29.1 ticks in the extra session, he muscled his way into the paint and gave the Lakers a comfortable 113-108 advantage.
