LeBron James leads Miami Heat past Los Angeles Lakers in 98 – 87 win – NBA Recap
The Miami Heat are arguably the strongest contenders for the NBA World Championship this season and have been on fire so far. Their “Big Three” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are probably the most powerful trio in basketball at the moment and
it showed here against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Miami hosted the Lakers at the American Airlines Arena and defeated them 98 – 87 with a terrific performance from two-time NBA MVP LeBron James. James scored 31 points on the night, dished out 8 assists, grabbed 8 boards, had 3 blocks and stole the ball
4 times in a splendid showing.
His effort was the major reason for Miami’s dominance on a night where they were missing the services of Dwyane Wade through injury. His coach Erik Spoelstra was pleased with James and said he was, along with Bosh and Wade, a very special talent.
"We don't take his talent for granted, nor do we take Dwyane's talent or Chris' talent," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "They're special players and they can rise to the occasion."
James’ performance put super star Lakers guard Kobe Bryant in the shade. Bryant has had a dominant season so far and recently went through a patch of 4 games scoring 40 plus points. On this night he managed 24 points and 7 assists, giving fuel to suggestions
that James has surpassed him as a player.
LeBron however didn’t want to make the comparison.
"It's never been between me and Kobe. I've been in this league long enough that I don't have to prove anything to Kobe, and he doesn't have to prove anything to me." He said.
Kobe too choose to focus on the match in his post game talk and pointed out what went wrong for his side.
"We tried to adjust to some things," said Bryant. "We might want to go back to some of the things that we were doing a few weeks ago in terms of me being on some spots on the floor and things where I'm most comfortable."
Kobe received good support from the two big guys on his team, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Gasol scored a team high 26 points and also hauled down 8 boards. Bynum on the other hand had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
For Miami, LeBron was helped out by a number of players, most notably Chris Bosh who had 15 points and 8 rebounds.
The game itself was a straightforward enough affair, with the Heat appearing to be the stronger side right from the start. They were ahead after the first quarter and followed it by an even more impressive showing in the second period to end the half in
a commanding position, leading at 52 – 37.
Things didn’t change after the interval as Miami held the upper hand in the third period. Los Angeles did score 31 points in the fourth quarter to restore some credibility to the final score line.
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