Down 96-77 heading into the fourth quarter on Thursday night, it looked like the Los Angeles Clippers had the game in the bag. The home team on this night, playing their in-city rival, was in position to improve to 38-19.
LeBron James had other ideas.
James, in a performance ill-fitting of someone in their 21st season, went on a scoring barrage in the fourth quarter (he scored 19 fourth quarter points) spearheading the first 19-plus point Laker fourth quarter comeback in 21 years. Finishing with 34 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds (13-of-21 from the field, 7-of-12 from three-point range) in the 116-112 win, he now sits 40 points away from 40,000 for his career.
James, who had just 15 points through three quarters and took just one shot in the third, came out aggressive in the fourth. After a Cam Reddish wing three that cut the deficit to 18, 98-80, James hit a transition three from the left wing, pump-faking Norman Powell to get a clean look at the basket. Moments later, he hit another triple from nearly the same spot, making the score 100-88 with 9:38 remaining.
After a Russell Westbrook miss, James hit another transition three, this time from the right wing, over PJ Tucker, forcing Ty Lue to call a timeout with 8:47 remaining. In just 1:59, the Lakers had scored eight unanswered.
James found D'Angelo Russell for a transition three with just under eight minutes to go, bringing the deficit to seven, 101-94. On the next Clipper possession, Mason Plumlee, looking for a cutting Terance Mann along the baseline, threw the ball away to Taurean Prince. James, retrieving the ball from Prince, brought the ball up the floor and drove left, getting by Norman Powell and, bumping Plumlee, hit a jumper off the glass. 101-96, 7:33 to go. At the other end, Powell hit a corner three with the shot clock winding down, to make it an eight-point game with seven minutes to play. James hit another transition three, this time from the top of the arc over Kawhi Leonard, forcing another timeout by Lue. By this point, James had 29 points, and had hit his fifth three-pointer of the quarter.
James connected on a left-handed layup on the next Laker possession after Leonard made a difficult layup over James. Another triple by James, over Daniel Theis at the top of the arc with the shot clock at four, got the Lakers within two, 106-104. It was a run by James in which he had scored the last 11 Laker points, before Anthony Davis made two free-throws to tie the score at 106 with an even four minutes to go. On the possession that gave the Lakers the lead, James drove left and found Rui Hachimura in the corner for three, with 3:13 to go. It was their first lead since 29-28. The Lakers forced the Clippers into a shot clock violation on the next possession, and Hachimura made a driving layup. 111-106 Lakers, 2:24 remaining. Harden hit a difficult driving layup against tight defense from Anthony Davis, but James, double-teamed at the top of the arc by Harden and Powell, found Russell in his shooting motion in the corner. The triple with 1:12 on the clock gave the Lakers a six-point edge, 114-108. Putting his finger to his mouth to indicate silencing the crowd, Russell's three marked a 15-2 run in 5:21. Consecutive scores from Leonard, who finished with 26 points on 11-of-19 from the field, and a missed running layup attempt by James gave the Clippers, even after squandering a 19-point advantage going in the fourth, a chance to tie or take the lead.
On the final play, Leonard, with a running start, got the inbound pass from Harden at the top of the arc. Leonard drove hard right, stopping just outside the paint on the baseline. Elevating over James for the would-be tying jumper, Leonard's shot came up short, hitting both rim and backboard. Game over. 116-112 Lakers (Reddish dunked the ball on a leak-out off a pass from James) in a triumphant, national television comeback.
James, chest-bumping teammate Jaxson Hayes and hugging head coach Darvin Ham, had completed an offensive shooting clinic. Getting hot from three-point range (James hit six of his seven makes from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter) he led his team to a major win.
It was the first 19-plus point fourth quarter comeback for the franchise since April 4, 2003, when the Lakers won on the road in Memphis against the Grizzlies, 102-101. In that game, Shaquille O'Neal had 33 points and 19 rebounds, while Kobe Bryant scored 21 and had seven rebounds and six assists.
The Lakers, who outscored the Clippers 39-16 in the fourth quarter, improved to 32-28 (ninth in the Western Conference). They are surging, having won seven of their last 10 games. The Clippers, meanwhile, are going in the opposite direction, just 5-5 in their last 10 and losers of two in a row. They sit at fourth-place in the conference, four games behind the number one Minnesota Timberwolves and two games behind the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers play the second game of a back-to-back tonight in a home contest against the Washington Wizards, while the Clippers face the Wizards on Friday night at home.
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