The Los Angeles Lakers beat Detroit 116-121 Sunday in the NBA, resuming success after three straight losses. This is the second time in a 19-year career that 36-year-old LeBron James has been sent off, the first time having occurred in 2017 while playing for Cleveland.
After this incident, the Lakers, led by Anthony Davis (30 points, 10 rebounds) and Russel Westbrook (26 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists) took control of the game to get a 9th victory which places them in 9th place in the Western Conference. On the Pistons’ side, Jerami Grant scored 36 points, while Cade Cunningham, a player selected in first position in the 2021 draft, became at 20 years and two months the youngest player in Detroit to sign a triple-double with 13 points. , 12 rebounds and 10 assists. The Clippers, the other franchise in Los Angeles, still worn by Paul George, won at home 97-91 against the Dallas Mavericks, orphans of their Slovenian genius Luka Doncic, in a rematch of the first round of the play-offs 2020.
Thanks to Kawhi Leonard, stratospheric, the Clippers had overcome the Mavs of Luka Doncic, bluffing, after a Homeric duel (4-3) last June. But Sunday, the two best players of the franchises were absent, injured. In their absence, the Clippers were able to count on their winger Paul George (29 points with 12 successful baskets out of 25 attempted, 4 rebounds and 6 assists), to beat the Texans again in an undecided game until the end.
Led 47-46 at halftime, the Californians made the difference in the third quarter (25-15), and barely managed to hold their result, despite the good match of the Latvian Kristaps Porzingis (25 pts at 10/18, 8 rebounds), effective in the fourth quarter. At the very end of the game, when the Mavericks were just five points away, Reggie Jackson gave Staple Center spectators the action of the night, with a pirouette lay-up, back to the basket, while ‘he was surrounded by the defenders (96-89).
The Clippers therefore return to victory, after two defeats against Memphis and New Orleans. The Californians are still without Nicolas Batum and Marcus Morris Sr., but have been able to count on Serge Ibaka, back on after a stint in the G-League (the lower league) following a long injury. The pivot was very active but clumsy (6 pts, 2/8).
On Tuesday, the two teams will meet for a rematch in which Doncic may participate.
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