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LeBron James praised D’Angelo Russell after the Los Angeles Lakers won Game 4 against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“The King” said “D’Lo” was “huge” in the fourth quarter. The Lakers were down 97-90 with five minutes left in regulation before Russell went on a personal 9-0 run with three 3-pointers.
“Without D’Lo and that fourth quarter, when the game was kind of stalling out and we couldn’t get a good shot, we couldn’t get a good look, D’Lo hit back-to-back 3s and gave us an opportunity to even put ourself in a position to go to overtime,” James told Chris Haynes of TNT. “So that was huge.”
Russell, who fouled out of Game 4, finished with 17 points and three assists in 29 minutes while shooting 7-of-15 from the field and 3-of-8 from beyond the arc. The Lakers are now one win away from advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals.
LeBron James Had 22 Points & 20 Rebounds
James had 22 points and 20 rebounds in Game 4, becoming the first Lakers player since Shaquille O’Neal (2004) to have a 20-20 game in the playoffs. At 38 years old, James is the oldest player in NBA history (regular season or playoffs) with a 20-point, 20-rebound game.
James hit a layup over Grizzlies center Jaren Jackson Jr. with 0.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 104-104. The four-time MVP and four-time Finals MVP finished the contest shooting 8-of-18 overall, 1-of-7 from 3-point land and 5-of-7 from the free-throw line in 45 minutes.
Game 5 of this series is on April 26 in Memphis. The Lakers won Game 1 at the FedEx Forum and lost Game 2.
Jason Richardson Has Strong Words for Austin Reaves
Former NBA guard Jason Richardson believes Austin Reaves is the third option on offense for the Lakers behind James and Anthony Davis.
“Every team has that third option,” Richardson told Christos Tsaltas of SDNA. “And so now when you look at the Lakers, Austin Reaves has become that third option and sometimes he becomes the second or first option because the way he plays the game. He can shoot the ball. He can dribble. He understands the game and he takes a lot of pressure off LeBron and AD. So it’s actually amazing to see the development of how far he has come along. His confidence level is sky-high. Those guys are believing in him. I think he took one of the last shots of the game to seal the game. So that lets you know how good of a player he is.”
Reaves led the Lakers in scoring in Game 4 with 23 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the floor and 2-of-5 shooting from deep. The rising star told Shams Charania of Stadium on April 10 that he wants to re-sign with the LakeShow this offseason. Reaves, who grew up a Kobe Bryant fan, becomes a restricted free agent this summer.
“Yeah I wanna be a Laker,” Reaves told Charania. “Obviously, they gave me the first opportunity. I was a huge Laker fan growing up. Big Kobe fan. So honestly, just to be able to play for the Lakers organization is special and I wanna be a Laker. So hopefully we can get this done and I can stay there for hopefully my whole career.”
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