INDIANAPOLIS — LeBron James may have won the buzzer-beater to lift the Los Angeles Lakers over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, but as his teammates crowded around to celebrate, the Lakers star admitted he didn’t quite know how to react.
“I couldn’t really get too emotional because I was trying to see if I got the ball in time, to be honest,” James said after L.A.’s 120-119 victory. “But after they showed the replay on it, it was definitely satisfying.”
An official’s review
confirmed that James’ right hand touched the ball with 0.2 seconds left, redirecting a missed floater by Luka Doncic through the hoop as time expired.
The victory ended a three-game skid for the Lakers and snapped a five-game winning streak for the Pacers. James also tied Kobe Bryant and Joe Johnson with the second-most winning market-beaters in NBA history (eight), behind only Michael Jordan (nine).
It felt like a game where we won three times and we lost three times, and we won the game,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said. “And it’s hard to win in the NBA. It’s hard to win against a great team like Indiana. Honestly, they never get talked about nationally enough. They’re a phenomenal basketball team.”
James quickly started the fourth by scoring eight of the Lakers’ first 10 points, extending his own record streak of 10 points or more to 1,283 consecutive games. He finished with 13 points, a team-high 13 rebounds, and 7 assists and logged 38 minutes in his third game back from a left groin strain that sidelined him for two weeks.
Lakers forward Rui Hachimura (14 points, four rebounds) had his best game since returning from a 12-game absence with tendinopathy in his left knee, hitting back-to-back 3s in the fourth to give L.A. a six-point cushion with less than two minutes left.
“As a team
, it’s kind of hard to get back into our rhythm,” Hachimura said. “We still know what we had before. But we have 10 more games to go, so we need to get back in the groove before the playoffs.”
L.A. (44-28) sits in No. 4 in the Western Conference after the win, one game behind the No. 3 Denver Nuggets and in a virtual tie with the No. 5 Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers’ four-game road trip continues for a second night in Chicago against the Bulls on Thursday and concludes in Memphis on Saturday. And the win at Indiana served as a reminder that every game — and every second — will be a stretch.
“The game isn’t over until it hits zero, literally, tonight,” James said. “And just keeping our cool throughout.”
Doncic had seven rebounds, seven assists, and six 3-pointers. Austin Reeves added 24 points as the Lakers moved into a tie with Memphis for the fourth seed in the Western Conference. snapped a three-game losing streak for the Lakers.
Benedict Mathurin had 23 points to lead Indiana. Tyrese Haliburton had a season-high 18 assists and 16 points, the last of which gave Indiana a 119-118 lead with 42.2 seconds left. Indiana had won five straight overall and eight at home.
The Lakers led
the entire second and third quarters and still led 118-112 with 1:44 left. But Haliburton’s three-point play capped a 7-0 run that gave Indiana the lead. Both teams then had empty possessions, and Doncic missed a midrange floater in the waning seconds, setting up James for the winner.
