The Los Angeles Lakers seemed well on their way to a 6th win in their last 7 games at the start of the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers. They had gone on an 8-0 run to stretch their lead to 17 points with under 10 minutes remaining, and it looked like they were going to coast to victory.
What followed, however, was an epic collapse as the Pacers outscored them 32-14 the rest of the way, with Andrew Nembhard drilling a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give them the 116-115 win. It was a stunning collapse from the Lakers, and their fans were furious after the game. A lot of the blame fell on the shoulders of LeBron James, who wasn’t able to replicate his heroics from the game against the San Antonio Spurs a couple of days back.
LeBron James’ Teams Were 403-1 When Leading By 17+ Points In The Fourth Quarter
We normally don’t see veteran teams blow this kind of a lead late in games, and you especially wouldn’t expect this to happen to a team with LeBron on it. Well, it turns out that a collapse like this had only happened once before in his career, as James’ teams were 403-1 when they were leading by 17+ points in the fourth quarter prior to this game.
Per the great @StatsWilliams:
Entering tonight, teams featuring LeBron James were 403-1 when leading by 17+ in the 4th quarter.
Now, they are 403-2.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) November 29, 2022
“Per the great @StatsWilliams:
Entering tonight, teams featuring LeBron James were 403-1 when leading by 17+ in the 4th quarter.
Now, they are 403-2.”
The only other time this happened was back in April of 2017 when LeBron’s Cavaliers shockingly blew a 26-point lead in the fourth quarter to the Atlanta Hawks in a 126-125 loss in overtime. Despite the manner of that defeat that late in the season, James led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing that again here.
This roster just has too many flaws and it needs LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook to all have great games in order to win. The front office, however, feels no sense of urgency to make a trade, which is concerning, as this team won’t go too far if they make the playoffs.
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