(Basketball news) The Los Angeles Lakers secured the 7th seed after they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves after overtime 108-102. For the Lakers, LeBron James had 30 points and 10 rebounds as Dennis Schröder scored 21 points, drilling a tie breaking 3-pointer on a pass from James with 1.4 seconds left in regulation before icing the win with two free throws with 8.4 seconds left while Davis had 24 points and 15 rebounds.
For the Timberwolves, Conley scored 23 points as Karl-Anthony Towns scored 24 points, Edwards scored just nine points. Schröder stepped up tremendously for D’Angelo Russell, who had a nightmare game for Los Angeles against his former team. Russell had eight assists, but scored two points on 1-of-9 shooting before getting benched down the stretch.
“It took everything out of us to get to where we are, and it took more out of us tonight,” Davis said. “But we’ve got a couple of days before we go to Memphis to start preparing for them. It’s been a battle. It’s been an up-and-down season for us, but now is the time to show who we are, and we showed it tonight.”
“Once you get to the end of things, to have everyone healthy, to be playing in the type of rhythm we’re playing in, to defend at the level that we’re defending at, going into the most important time of the year, you can’t ask for a better situation,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
“The play was between me and AD, and we discussed it on the bench, and then we moved forward,” James said. “We’ve still got five more minutes to play. That’s how we started overtime. We was able to recalibrate. Get our game back.”
“That was totally on me,” said Davis, who had 24 points and 15 rebounds. “He faded out of bounds where I was going. But it goes back to the next-play mentality, and we got it done in overtime.”
The Atlanta Hawks sealed the 7th spot in the Eastern Conference as they beat the Miami Heat 116-105. For the Hawks, Trae Young scored 25 points as Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds while Dejounte Murray added 18 points, Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson – combined for 53 points which was the key factor in their win.
For the Heat, Kyle Lowry scored 33 points which was his highest-scoring game in his two seasons with the team as Tyler Herro scored 26 and Jimmy Butler finished with 21 points. For the Heat, they will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a playoff 1st round with number 1 seed Milwaukee. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday as the winner of Friday’s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
“Our guys are trying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,” Snyder said. “The year’s not over. So hopefully we can take this and continue to build on it. It’s one game – but it was our game.”
“Come Friday, we have to play the legit exact opposite of how we played tonight,” Butler said
“We all understand the moment and the time of year it is,” Young said. “Credit our guys for being locked in, ready and focused on the game plan.”
Also read: NBA: Lakers have chance to seal the 7th seed while Suns face Clippers
