(Football news) The Los Angeles Lakers won two games in a row as they beat the Portland Trailblazer 121-112. For the Lakers, James finished with 37 points and 11 rebounds as Thomas Bryant added 31 points and 14 rebounds. For the Trailblazers, Anfernee Simons had 31 points while Damian Lillard added 24 points and 10 assists who have lost three straight. Anthony Davis is currently dealing with a foot injury that has kept him out for 19 games. James was questionable going into the game with a sore ankle but played he is closing in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record of 38,387 points. James is 233 points away from matching the record after Sunday’s game. With this result the Lakers improved their record to 22-25.
”I guess it’s only one or two ways, you can either go out and you can lay down and get ready for the next game or you can see what happens in the third quarter, make a game of it,” James said. ”And for us as competitors, and our team and our makeup this year, we’re not a lay-down team. That’s just not the makeup of our club.”
‘Right now, we’re just not getting it done,” Lillard said when asked if the Blazers should try to deal before the trade deadline. ”I do want to win. I don’t think it’s a secret that I want to win. I think we’ve got to do whatever we need to do to be in a position to win.”
”We’ve been through it a lot. And I just want to try to continue to keep improving, throughout late games and one-possession games, two-possession games when we’re down late,” James said. ”And tonight we did a good job of being able to execute defensively and offensively.”
The Brooklyn Nets got a narrow victory over the Golden State Warriors 120-116. For the Nets, Irving finished with 38 points, nine assists and seven rebounds while Nic Claxton contributed career highs of 24 points and 15 rebounds with three blocks. The Nets team that won a second straight game playing without Durant, who missed facing his former team. For the Warriors, Jordan Poole added 17 points as Steph Curry had 26 points, seven assists and six rebounds while Looney had 14 points and 10 boards and Draymond Green nine points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. With this result the Nets remained fourth in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 29-17.
”Kyrie had been getting to the basket, hitting tough shots and at that moment, he drove, two people double-teamed and he found me open,” O’Neale said. ”I just needed to have the confidence to knock it down.”
”They did a great job of staying on my body, keeping the game physical, making it tough,” Irving said. ”I felt like my teammates had a lot of great looks, drawing the defense, drawing two, three to lose their man. Royce being wide open, I felt like that was the best shot for our team so I gave up the ball, trusted him to make it and luckily it went in.”
”It’s a lot of confidence going around, everybody’s taking the challenge, stepping up, finding out ways to win games,” O’Neale said.
Also read: NBA: Lakers snap the Grizzlies 11 match winning streak while Warriors win
