As the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers were struggling from the field, JaVale McGee was patrolling the paint on offense and defense en route to finishing with a career night.
McGee scored 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting to go along with five rebounds in the first quarter of an eventual loss that officially eliminated the Lakers from playoff contention for a sixth consecutive season.
McGee scored a career-high 33 points, pulled down 20 rebounds and blocked six shots. “I feel like everybody was focused on LeBron, and he was really setting it up for me to be successful out there,” the veteran center said.
“Also, I was going to offensive rebounds really hard today and it just worked out for me, but unfortunately we didn’t win the game.”
James was among the several players who had an off shooting night, and to combat that he regularly looked to set the table for McGee. “He was great all night. He was just reading the defense,” James said.
“[The Nets] were sagging off of him, I just tried to keep finding him and he was either making jump hooks or getting lob dunks, so we just kept finding him and he did a great job. Sometimes when he missed, he was just getting off his rebounds. He had a lot of energy tonight.”
McGee became the first Lakers player with at least 33 points, 20 rebounds and six blocks since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did so four times (most recently Feb. 3, 1978). Additionally, McGee is the first overall player with such a line since David Robinson did so Nov. 15, 1994, against the Denver Nuggets.
