The Los Angeles Lakers and Matt Ryan set the NBA ablaze with a game-tying three to send their match against the New Orleans Pelicans to overtime. LA crawled and scraped a victory by a razor-thin margin in overtime to close out the game strong. LeBron James’ scoring display was poor by his standards. Nevertheless, the ‘King’ as always, was able to impact the game through his immaculate passing and high basketball IQ racking up eight assists.
Advertisement
James previously illustrated his exceptional IQ and muscle memory back in 2018 when he recollected an entire sequence of play that occurred against the Boston Celtics. The 37-year-old recited the plays from Game 1 at the TD Garden, shocking the reporters.
In a corresponding fashion, James decided to provide the media with his impeccable photographic memory, four long years later.
LeBron James exhibits incredible muscle-memory recalling similar plays designed against his former teams!
Matt Ryan’s last-second three liberated the Lakers from humiliation which would have seen the 2020 NBA champions hit rock bottom, with just one win in seven games.
Speaking about the game saver, Lakers’ exemplar, LeBron James shared his insight.
James stated-
“I definitely know both sides to that. San Antonio can run it playing Game six. The finals game includes Bosh’s late block. And when I was in Miami, Boston ran it versus us. Jeff Green had a game versus us with a pass over the top. So it was a great play call by coach.”
The four-time NBA champion’s remembrance is absolutely spot on as those plays were designed back in the day to beat his teams.
LeBron James was right in his assessment that the play orchestrated by Darvin Ham to pick out Matt Ryan was tremendous. After all, the play proved to be the right call with Ryan draining the equalizing buzzer-beater.
Also read: Potential 5-star Recruit Bronny James, Has a Unique Advantage of Being LeBron James’ Son
Los Angeles Lakers’ second victory!
The ‘Purple and Gold’ eventually picked up a significant victory in overtime. However, the Lakers were fortunate due to the two missed free throws by the Pelicans.
They just edged the Pelicans in an exhilarating finish which saw the franchise walk away with a three-point surplus.
Starters, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Lonnie Walker put up magnificent performances combing for 68 points of the Lakers’ 120. In addition, Davis and James crashed the board accumulating 26 rebounds combined.
Former NBA ‘MVP’ Russell Westbrook was a force to be reckoned with off the bench, scoring 13 points, grabbing seven rebounds, and dishing out nine dimes.
Furthermore, ‘Brodie’ had yet another efficient night from the field scoring at 60% converting six of his ten attempts which also included a three.
Albeit three games is too small a sample size, Westbrook looks to be thriving in his new role. The sun may still rise in Los Angeles after all.
