LeBron James put on a show, pouring in 35 points and leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a thrilling 124-117 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night while Anthony Davis complemented "the King's" performance with 34 points and a dominating 15-rebound performance, propelling the Lakers to a relieving hard-fought win.
"This was a must-win for us because we wanted to have a successful road trip – at least .500,” Davis said. "The last game is always the toughest to win.”
Davis also had seven assists as the Lakers overcame 38 points from Bojan Bogdanovic to end a three-game losing streak. Lonnie Walker IV added 18 points for Los Angeles and Russell Westbrook had 11 points and nine assists.
"LeBron really came in with a focus to finish the right way,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. "He was leading the charge and would not allow this game to get away from us."
Rookie Jaden Ivey had 16 points for Detroit. The Pistons have lost three in a row.
"There are a lot of things you can't control in a game – they came in shooting 28% on threes and they shot 42% tonight – but we have to get better at the other things,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. "We can control boxing out and understanding rotations - we get caught up in the game and lose our focus.”
The Lakers led 61-49 at halftime, but Bogdanovic scored a career-high 25 points in the third quarter to pull the Pistons back into the game. With Davis scoring 17 points in the quarter, the Lakers took a 91-90 lead into the fourth.
"We fought all night long, but I think we had too many mistakes in the first half,” Bogdanovic said. "We must have given them 10 easy back-door layups and dunks, and that breaks your defense.”
Alec Burks scored to pull Detroit to 119-115 with a minute left, and Bogdanovic’s layup made it 119-117 with 35 seconds to play.
James, who had 13 points in the fourth, ran down the clock, drove down the lane and flipped to an open Austin Reaves for a baseline 3-pointer with 12.4 seconds to play.
"When you are playing with him, you know he's always going to make the right basketball play,” Reaves said. "Knowing he has the confidence in me to take that shot builds my confidence.”
Casey was left shaking his head at another key mistake by his young team.
"I'm not even sure who it was, but our defender in the strong corner helped into the lane on LeBron,” he said. "You can't do that. You have to understand the situation. If we give up a basket at the rim, we live with it, but you can't give up a three at that point.”
