Lakers escape elimination thank to Lebron James’s performance

The Los Ange­les Lak­ers nar­row­ly escaped elim­i­na­tion, defeat­ing the Phoenix Suns 106–103 behind LeBron James’s elec­tri­fy­ing performance. 

James willed the Lak­ers to vic­to­ry with a 31-point, 11-assist dou­ble-dou­ble while play­ing all 12 fourth quar­ter min­utes. He drained mul­ti­ple deep shots in crunch time to fend off the Suns.

Antho­ny Davis dom­i­nat­ed inside with 27 points and 15 rebounds for LA. The Lak­ers got an unex­pect­ed lift from Austin Reaves, who scored 20 points off the bench. His clutch three-point­er with 20 sec­onds left proved pivotal.

The Suns stayed close behind Kevin Durant’s 31 points. Devin Book­er added a 21-point, 11-rebound dou­ble-dou­ble in the los­ing effort. Grayson Allen impressed in place of the injured Bradley Beal, con­tribut­ing 21 points in a reserve role.

The hard-fought win sends the Lak­ers to face the New Orleans Pel­i­cans in the semi­fi­nals in Las Vegas. A rematch with Gian­nis Ante­tok­oun­m­po and the Mil­wau­kee Bucks could fol­low in the finals.