LA OVERTIME OVERDRIVE
Lakers forced to extra period again, emerge victorious again; ‘demons’ haunt Towns’ return from quarantine
LeBron James forced the extra session with a three-pointer and scored 25 points as the Los Angeles Lakers won their third consecutive overtime game by outlasting the slumping Oklahoma City Thunder, 114-113, on Wednesday.
James finished with seven assists and six rebounds, Montrezl Harrell scored 20 points, Dennis Schroder contributed 19 and Kyle Kuzma added 15 for the hosts and reigning NBA champions Lakers, who now have six straight wins.
Los Angeles played without injured star forward Anthony Davis (Achilles) for the second game in a row.
This was the third straight overtime game for the Lakers and second against the short-handed Thunder, who have lost three of their last four. Los Angeles beat the Thunder in overtime on Monday and Detroit in double overtime two nights earlier.
Al Horford had 25 points, Kenrich Williams scored 24 points, Luguentz Dort had 17 and Hamidou Diallo collected 15 points and 13 rebounds in the loss. The Thunder were missing their best player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is out with a knee injury.
Also, Devin Booker drained clutch free throws with 32 seconds left as the Phoenix Suns overcame a 47-point performance by back-to-back most valuable player winner Giannis Antetokounmpo with a 125-124 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Antetokounmpo also had 11 rebounds and five assists while shooting 15-of-23 from the floor en route to a season-high scoring performance. He put up a desperation 20-foot jumper at the buzzer to try and win it, but the ball bounced off the back of the rim as the Bucks had their season-best five-game win streak snapped.
Chris Paul added 28 points and seven assists as Phoenix earned its fourth straight win and its seventh in the past eight games.
Khris Middleton had 18 points and 11 assists and Bryn Forbes scored all 17 of his points in the first half for Milwaukee, in front of a pandemic limited crowd of 1,400 mask-wearing fans in Arizona.
Elsewhere, Luka Doncic scored 28 points with 10 assists and 10 rebounds on Wednesday as the Dallas Mavericks rallied for a 118-117 NBA victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
Doncic notched his league-leading seventh triple-double of the season and the Mavericks rallied from a nine-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter as they continue to try to fight their way up from the depths of the Western Conference.
A Doncic three-pointer gave the Mavericks their first lead since the second quarter, 104101, with 5:29 to play.
The Los Angeles Clippers shook off a slow start to beat the Timberwolves, 119-112, in Minnesota, avoiding their first three-game losing streak of the season.
Kawhi Leonard scored 36 points with eight rebounds and five assists and Lou Williams added a season-high 27 points off the bench for the Clippers, who were without scoring threat Paul George.
The Clippers welcomed starting guard Patrick Beverley back to action after an eightgame injury absence.
Naz Reid led Minnesota with 23 points off the bench. Malik Beasley scored 21 and Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 18 in his first contest back from a 13-game absence since announcing in January he had tested positive for COVID-19. The virus had earlier claimed several family members, including his mother.
Towns said he felt “guilty” that he had access to treatments that aren’t easily available to most Americans.
“There’s such mental strain during all this time, feeling of guilt because of the resources I have, and I wish I could spread these resources to as many people as possible,” Towns said. “Guilt, just a lot of demons I haven’t dealt with that I put to the back burner.”