After four months of inactivity, the NBA is finally back and fans can’t be more excited about it. The first night back, the league gave us two interesting games between the Jazz and the Pelicans and the Lakers and Clippers, respectively.
Utah and New Orleans had a great game, with the Jazz winning 106-104. However, the second game of the night stole all the attention since the battle of Los Angeles has been one of the biggest stories in the league this season.
It was a close, hard-fought game that saw the Lakers prevail with a game-winner by LeBron James. James wasn’t good on the offensive end but he manages to help his team on the defense, going against Kawhi Leonard and Paul George for a big part of the game.
During the last moments of the game, Bron faced Leonard, locking him up and then standing in the way of PG, who missed a potential game-winner to finish the game. The Lakers won the match 103-101 and Lakers fans were just happy to see what LeBron did against his biggest rivals on both ends of the floor. They went off on Kawhi Leonard, who couldn’t unlock the defense in the last seconds of the 4th quarter.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDSx4SoA5xz
Lebron at the last minute of the game pic.twitter.com/3ELAaVkCeQ
— B1grage (@DfInbound) July 31, 2020
Why do I feel like Bron is about to post this on his IG😭 pic.twitter.com/kLNCp1dEd6
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) July 31, 2020
Never ever in my life do I wanna hear Kawhi is better than LeBron again.
He shut that down tonight, just like he did Kawhi and PG
— ColtsLife (@JohnsnSP) July 31, 2020
— Cougbacca (@trvorXX) July 31, 2020
At the end of the game, Kawhi said a couple of things to the media, explaining what went wrong for the Clippers and the things they have to improve for the future.
Kawhi Leonard on Clippers-Lakers games – "We're still kind of figuring it out. It was a good game. We still had fun out there. Was great to be back on the floor… We can't turn the ball over that much."
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) July 31, 2020
To be fair, Kawhi did have a good game, dropping 28 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds on Thursday night. The thing is, that he got locked by LeBron when the game was ending. While LeBron didn’t have the best night on the offense, he showed up in crunch time with a crucial basket and two great defenses on Kawhi and Paul George.
LeBron also shared his impressions of the game, stating that he wanted to be aggressive no matter what.
“For me I was just trying to be aggressive. I feel like I got some contact at the elbow by Marcus Morris. They didn’t call it. Like I was told when I was a kid and ever since I started playing basketball – if there’s no whistle, you keep playing on. I was able to follow my own shot and put us up. Put us up for good.”
Lakers’ LeBron James on his game-winner vs. Clippers: “I love having the ball in my hands late in the game. … I was able to follow my own shot and put us up. Put us up for good.” pic.twitter.com/xqjOJkNVB8
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) July 31, 2020
The battle of Los Angeles is expected to have another chapter in the playoffs, hopefully, to see which team is going to reach the Finals. Both squads will be ready to settle this thing once and for all. Their regular season duel ended 2-2, so nothing is decided yet.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 34 points and 8 rebounds but Bron stole the night with that 4th quarter.
