The dance music blared as the crowd took turns roaring their way through a fourth-quarter timeout, Lakers coach JJ Redick frustrated after another clean look for the Spurs allowed them to get within a point.
To that point, the game had delivered.
With the NBA Cup raising the stakes, Anthony Davis and Victor Wembanyama dueled. The teams traded, and blew, double-digit leads. And with LMFAO turned up to 11 midway through the fourth, the NBA had exactly what it wanted — a November basketball game that felt like it mattered.
The crowd buzzed with each possession, a Wembanyama dunk off a lob getting a roar on one end. A clutch Davis triple on the other leading to a collective groan.
It went that way, deep into the final minute, with the Lakers making the biggest plays in the final seconds of a 120-115 win.
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“You get to play a game like this on the road, especially when we’ve been struggling on the road,” Davis said. “To come in this locker room at the end of the game and get the win, I mean, it was phenomenal. Taking steps in the right direction.”
Davis, who scored 40 points, worked from the block with Wembanyama on his hip and the shot clock running down, only to find a cutting LeBron James for a layup that helped ice the win.
“It was big-time for our team knowing that we can execute down the stretch,” James said. “And it doesn’t always have to be in early transition or it doesn’t always have to be just the ball in my hands and we isolate or whatever the case may be.”
Six different Lakers scored in double figures, with James emphatically clapping his hands and Davis holding the ball in the air at the final horn.
“That’s what we want to do,” Davis said. “We want to be just as good of a road team as we are a home team. And we can’t do that if we don’t come out and compete. We’ve been just a different team when we’ve been out on the road. The way we compete, share the ball, play together at home, is totally different than when we get on the other side on the road. So we did that tonight.”
On a night where he moved into a tie for the fifth most regular-season NBA games ever played, James figured out a way to do the incredible.
In his 22nd NBA season, James figured out a way to do something for the first time.
Following triple-doubles in the Lakers’ wins over Philadelphia, Toronto and Memphis, James did it again Friday in San Antonio.
He finished with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists. The Lakers won each of those four games.
The Lakers didn’t have starting forward Rui Hachimura, who missed the game with a sprained ankle. The Lakers started rookie Dalton Knecht instead.
Their bench, which has been one of the team’s clearest weaknesses this season, had its best game. Max Christie, back in the rotation with Hachimura out, scored a season-high 11 points. Gabe Vincent, who has been in a shooting slump to begin the season, had six points and three steals.
Both helped change the game in the first half as the Lakers erased a 12-point deficit.
“ I think he has a lot of belief in a lot of us and I think he definitely has a lot of belief in me and I can appreciate that coming from a head coach,” Christie said of his second chance. “I know, you know how I can play and I think tonight was a very good example of that when I’m just out there playing free, playing the way I know I can play instead of just trying to overcomplicate things.”
The team plays again Saturday night in New Orleans.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
