(Basketball news) The Los Angeles Lakers rallied from 30 points to win against the Dallas Mavericks 111-108. For the Lakers, Davis had 30 points and 15 rebounds, LeBron James scored 26 points while Jarred Vanderbilt, after a 14-point first quarter as he finished with 17 rebounds and four steals. For the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving had 21 points and 11 rebounds as Luka Doncic scored 26 points as Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 17 points. The Lakers won their fourth game in a row for LA as they came back after trailing by 27 points in the middle of the second quarter – the same deficit the Lakers faced at the start of the fourth at home against Dallas on Dec. 6, 2002, before finishing a 30-point rally in a 105-103 victory.
”The guys never got discouraged,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. ”They had that look of frustration, but it wasn’t a look of defeatedness on their faces. Everybody just wanted to stay encouraged.”
”We have to grow up if we want to win a championship,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. ”What the Lakers just showed us is it’s not the rabbit that wins; it’s the turtle. And they worked the game. And that’s what we have to get better at.”
‘It’s been better,” said James, who limped through the tunnel after the game. ”But I definitely wasn’t going to locker room and not finish the game. The importance of this game and then the momentum that we had, I felt like we could steal one after being down.”
The Portland TrailBlazers celebrated a record breaking occasion as Damian Lillard hit 71 points to beat the Houston Rockets 131-114. For the Trailblazers, Lillard set franchise record and career marks with 71 points as he tied for the most in the NBA 3 pointers this season with 13 3-pointers. Lillard left the game with 44 seconds left, tied with Mitchell, Elgin Baylor (1960) and David Robinson (1994) for the eighth-most points scored in a game in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain owns the league record with 100 for Philadelphia against New York on March 2, 1962, at Hershey, Pennsylvania.
”I enjoy those moments in the game when I’m just going after people,” Lillard said, ”when I’m in attack mode.”
”I know I’ve got a lot of tattoos, but when you’re doing a blood draw, it’s different from tattoos. It brought me down from here to the floor,” Lillard said gesturing with his hand raised then dropping it.
”I think any hooper enjoys those moments when you’re hot, you’re in attack mode, you’re feeling good,” Lillard said. ”But it’s the stuff afterward that I struggle with, like when I walked off the court, was I supposed to be overly excited, or what?”
