Lebron James suggests a bickering Beater; Lakers escape strictly to Pacers 120-119
Lebron James has gone from potentially looking at one of his most famous strips to create another moment of signature on Wednesday evening.
After fighting to score for three quarters, James focused a rebound with the passage of time, giving his Los Angeles Lakers a road victory for 120-119 over the Indiana Pacers. The bucket gave James 10 points in the fourth quarter, bringing it to 13 for the night.
James had only three points – all free shots – through three quarters. The last time he scored less than 10 points in a regular season game on January 5, 2007, when he had nine points in 43 minutes in a game of Cleveland Cavaliers in Milwaukee. On Wednesday he scored James’ 1,283 game since then. He scored less than 10 points in a playoff game twice during that arch recently, on May 28, 2014.
On Wednesday, James missed the teammate Luka Dončić from his new teammate, closing one last final in Indianapolis. The Lakers took an advantage of six points with 1:51 remaining, but they sold two fairly easy buckets along the stretch, appearing content to play it safely and not dirty.
A turnover from Austin Reeves and a float, in addition to a free shot, from the star Pacers Tyrese Haliburton gave Indiana an advantage of 119-118 with 42 remaining seconds. The advantage resisted for 41.9 seconds.
🚨 LeBron for the victory 🚨@Kingjames Suggestions in #Tissotbuzzerbeater!#Yourtimedefinesyourgreatness pic.twitter.com/obpffuaapy
– NBA (@nba) March 27, 2025
“To be honest with you, I didn’t know how I felt because I was trying to look at the jumbatron to see if I went out (the shot) before the time expired,” James said to Espn after the game.
“I said (Wednesday morning) that after two weeks, it will take a while to recover my offensive rhythm, to get the wind back and take back my cardio. One thing about my game is that I can always do other things on the floor to help our team win even when I’m not shooting the ball well.”
James has lost seven of the last 11 Lakers matches due to an groin voltage. Los Angeles lost the first two games of James’ return: a defeat at home in Chicago and a defeat in Orlando.
James lost all six goals attempts in the first three quarters, but 4 by 6 went to the field and 2 by 2 from the free shooting line in the fourth quarter. He finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists in almost 38 minutes.
With the victory, the Lakers improved at 44-28. Pacers went down to 42-30.
(Photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)
