The Indiana Pacers stunned the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday with Andrew Nembhard knocking down a game-winning buzzer-beater to leave Crypto.com Arena with a 116-115 victory.
L.A. seemed to have the game under control for the majority of the night. The Purple and Gold led by as many as 17 points — in the fourth quarter, no less — before they collapsed in the last 10 minutes of the clash.
After the Lakers took a 101-84 lead, the Pacers went on a 32-16 run to snatch the win from the hosts’ hands. “Just got to finish the game,” LeBron James said after the game. “Everything has to go wrong in order for you to lose a game like that and everything went wrong.
“They kept fighting and kept pushing. [Tyrese] Halliburton is a really, really dynamic point guard. Really good and cerebral out there. They took the game from us, so you give them credit.”
Young Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton ended up with 24 points, 14 assists and seven rebounds, and rookie Bennedict Mathurin added 23 points and eight rebounds, scoring a fourth of Indiana’s points during the game-winning run.
Fellow rookie Andrew Nembhard, Haliburton and Myles Turner turned out to be the Pacers’ heroes of the deciding play. Straight out of a time-out, Turner capitalized on the miscommunication among the Lakers’ defense to fire a wide-open 3. Although the big man missed, Haliburton collected an offensive rebound and found Nembhard unguarded above the line before the 22-year-old Canadian drilled the game-winner.
“Well, we messed up a coverage to start, and that’s how Myles Turner was able to get the open three,” James said of the play. “We had already messed up the coverage to start. So that’s why we were in scramble mode after that. Even letting them get the offensive rebound, we should have come up with the offensive rebound.
“It hit off the front of the rim and flew back all the way to the three-point line. So we were already in scramble mode. We had two on the ball, at that time. I think DS and AR were on the ball, and AD had two, I was playing two. And [Tyrese] Haliburton found a shooter weakside. Got out a good contest, but NBA players, they make shots like that, so you give credit.”
James added all the Lakers can do to bounce back is to get back in the film room, identify their mistakes, and work hard to fix them.
“Well, I mean, you respond to it exactly how you respond to a win,” the 18-time All-Star said. “Get into the film room the next day and see where you can be better. See what mistakes that you had, and then you implement that into the floor.
“We’ve got another game on Wednesday versus another very good team in Portland, and you come out, and you execute.”
James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis all finished the game with 21 points or more, but their effort wasn’t enough to secure a win.
James provides short update on sprained ankle
In addition to losing the game, James sprained his ankle in the first quarter — only three games after returning from an adductor injury.
The four-time NBA champion seemingly wasn’t in the mood to discuss his health after the loss.
“It was better before it happened,” James said when asked how his ankle felt.
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