AD-led Lakers trim Cavs; Sixers halt Thunder run
CLEVELAND—Los Angeles big man Anthony Davis scored 23 of his season-high 32 points in the second half on Saturday as the Lakers earned a third straight NBA road win with a hard-fought 121-115 victory over the Cavaliers.
Davis added 13 rebounds and three blocked shots, helping the Lakers overcome a slow shooting night from superstar LeBron James against his former club, which honored the league’s all-time leading scorer with a video tribute in the first quarter.
James connected on just 8-of-23 shots—one-of-nine from three-point range—on the way to 22 points in a nip-and-tuck game that featured 16 lead changes and never saw either team push its lead to double digits.
Davis’ layup—after he rebounded a James miss—put the Lakers up, 111-103, with 3:48 to play.
MVP-like game“We just had to impose our will on the defensive end,” Davis said, acknowledging the Lakers benefitted from the second-half absence of Cleveland’s Darius Garland, who departed early with a neck injury.But he hailed a “total team win” after seven of the eight Lakers players who took the court scored in double figures.In Oklahoma City, Philadelphia’s reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) Joel Embiid scored 35 points and drained six free throws in the final 9.8 seconds to help the 76ers hold off the Thunder, 127-123.
Embiid came up just shy of his first triple-double of the season, adding 11 rebounds and nine assists to go with four blocked shots to help the Sixers end the Thunder’s six-game winning streak. —AFP
