National Basketball Association absolute megastar, LeBron James, has only gone and endeared himself even more to United States La Lakers fans, and his worldwide audience of admirers, as earlier this week he again put in another outstanding performance on the court to lead his franchise to the NBA playoffs, in what was a massively dramatic comeback win over the impressive Minnesota Timberwolves.
This season, the Lakers surprised many by making their worst start to a campaign in 65 full years as they lost their first five games, but they rallied and their efforts and determination have been rewarded by earning a place in the play offs where they will look to overcome the Memphis Grizzlies in their next battle.
For himself, James, or as the effectively branded ‘LeBron’ scored 30 individual points to help his side a 15 point deficit, to ultimately take the game 108 to 102 in overtime.
For anyone who has not seen the clash, seek out the highlights, the finish alone is worth watching. For those who like a flutter, the betting odds by US sportsbook apps on that kind of turnaround would have been extreme in heavily in favour of the punter. Nobody could expect those odds again now they have progressed, but in betting terms, there is nothing better than a team coming back against those odds and succeeding.
Speaking after the game to the assembled media, James said.
“This is what our sport is all about – getting to April and an opportunity to play in the postseason. We’ve been battle-tested all year and since the All-Star break we’ve been playing some good basketball.”
Whilst LeBron undoubtedly takes the headlines here, and rightly so, what the Timberwolves offered to the game should not go unnoticed. Their own performance was more than worthy of immense credit and praise. In a few years, this match up could well go down in history given the ultimate enthralling finish.
In the action packed finale for Los Angeles, Dennis Schroder, is also worthy of acknowledgement as he scored 21 points in total – including an obviously key three pointer with only 1.4 seconds clocked that was left in regulation time to give them a 98 to 95 lead. Anthony Davies then accidentally fouled Mike Conley to give the Timberwolves guard shot three free throws and he made them count with 0.1 seconds left on the clock to enter overtime.
For viewers who watched, they will then know the Lakers more than recovered and basically controlled much of the extra period of time to take their win, even though they were 76 to 61 behind midway through the third quarter.
Minnesota’s own play off dreams are clearly not over at this stage either, and they will be ruing the fact that in the game against the Lakers they were without the talents of suspended Rudy Gobert.
They can now qualify through the play in route, and keep their own journey going, as they are scheduled to face Oklahoma City, following their own win, and whoever ultimately wins out, will take on the Denver Nuggets, who are this season’s top seed in the Western Conference.
The headlines will, however, remain on the LA Lakers and LeBron James given the legacy that the 38 year old Akron, Ohio born ‘King James’ is making for himself.
