LOS ANGELES (AFP) – LeBron James scored 20 of his 37 points in the second half as the Los Angeles Lakers rallied from a 25-point halftime deficit to stun the Portland Trail Blazers, 121-112, on Sunday.
The Lakers, who scored just 13 points to Portland’s 45 in the second quarter, roared back to become the first team to win a game in which it lost a quarter by 30 or more points since the Boston Celtics against the Buffalo Braves in 1972.
The remarkable reversal was just one dramatic comeback on a night that saw the Brooklyn Nets ˗ led by 38 points from an inspired Kyrie Irving ˗ beat the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, 120-116, in San Francisco.
However, the two top teams in the Western Conference ˗ the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies ˗ couldn’t climb all the way back from early deficits, Denver falling 101-99 to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis losing 112-110 to the Phoenix Suns.
In Portland, a Lakers team struggling for consistency in the absence of injured Anthony Davis started promisingly, making their first six shots on the way to an early 14-point lead.
But the second quarter saw them “falling apart on both sides of the ball,” coach Darvin Ham said, and they were on the ropes after the period in which their six made shots were one fewer than their seven turnovers.
But James scored 16 points in the third quarter and Dennis Schroder added 14 as the Lakers cut the deficit to five heading into the final frame.
Schroder finished with 21 points in total and Thomas Bryant added 31 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers, who regained the lead on Bryant’s three-pointer midway through the fourth and took the lead for good on Bryant’s floater — off a feed from James — with 5:08 to play.
In San Francisco, Irving drove the Nets’ comeback, but with the Warriors defense locked on him it was Royce O’Neale who hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 28.5 seconds remaining.
Irving drained a pair of free throws to seal the win.
In Denver, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points as the Thunder ended the Nuggets’ nine-game winning streak.
With two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic still sidelined by a hamstring injury, the Nuggets trailed much of the night.
They tied it at 99-99 with 30.2 seconds remaining, but Gilgeous-Alexander banked in a go-ahead basket with 9.2 seconds left and Denver’s Jamal Murray, facing stifling defense from Lu Dort, missed as the clock ticked down.
