Friday night’s battle between the two best teams in the NBA did not disappoint, thanks to the two best players in the league. In what could very well be an NBA Finals preview, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 113-103 at the Staples Center, thanks to a flashback performance from LeBron James: 37 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, with 14 of those points coming in a key third quarter for the home team.
The win was the Lakers’ 10th in 11 games, pushing them a comfortable 5.5 games up on their cross-town rival Clippers in the race for the number one seed in the Western Conference. As has been the case all season, LeBron had some help in the form of Anthony Davis, who notched 30 points of his own; two of those came from a beautiful alley-oop between the two superstars.
You Better Move 👑✖️〰 pic.twitter.com/1uzWDfGeB8
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 7, 2020
LeBron’s counterpart, Giannis Antetokounmpo, also stepped it up under the bright lights of L.A., going off for 32 points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort. However, there is now a worry for the league-leading Bucks, as a scary fall in the second half saw him land on his knee. He stayed in the game, but reporters saw him limping in the locker room afterwards, so that’s something to keep an eye out as Milwaukee looks to seal the first seed in the Eastern Conference.
While Antetokounmpo is the favorite to win his second consecutive Most Valuable Player award this season, LeBron showed on Friday that he can still turn it on for big games. Of course, that’s not to say he hasn’t been doing that all season anyway, but as he keeps trucking through his age-35 season, he’s learned how to coast when he’s able to.
That wasn’t the case against Milwaukee, as the Lakers needed their legend to be just that. Luckily for them, he more than delivered, and now fans around the league can only dream of this as a potential Finals match-up.
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