{"id":432850,"date":"2025-12-08T08:22:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432850\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:22:16","slug":"lebron-james-and-luka-doncic-return-and-lead-lakers-past-76ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432850\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James and Luka Doncic return and lead Lakers past 76ers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0LeBron James<\/a> needed to send this message.<\/p>\n

He still sits on his throne.<\/p>\n

The Lakers<\/a> superstar scored 10 consecutive points late in the fourth quarter to seal a 112-108 win<\/a> over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, finishing with 29 points, seven rebounds and six assists to help the Lakers (17-6) nab two wins out of a difficult three-game trip.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia (13-10) crawled back from a 10-point deficit in the third quarter and tied the score with 1:28 remaining on a shot by Joel Embiid<\/a>. James answered with a fadeaway three-pointer over Quentin Grimes<\/a> with 1:11 left. He all but iced the game with a 20-foot fadeaway over Grimes with 27.3 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

Running back up the court, James held both hands low in a \u201ctoo small\u201d signal. He placed an invisible crown on his head. He soaked in the roars from the crowd and punctuated it with his signature silencer celebration.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was vintage Bron,\u201d said Luka Doncic<\/a>, who finished with 31 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists after a two-game absence for the birth of his second child. \u201cWe\u2019re happy he was there to save us.\u201d<\/p>\n

James played in his 1,015th win, passing Robert Parish<\/a> for the second most in NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a> holds the record with 1,074. The Lakers won for the first time in Philadelphia since Dec. 7, 2017. <\/p>\n

Doncic rejoined the team Saturday after he flew from L.A. to his native Slovenia on Dec. 1. Between the 12-hour flight, a nine-hour time difference and being present for the birth of his daughter Olivia, the last week was a blur for Doncic.<\/p>\n

Doncic still made his return look effortless, notching his second triple-double of the season.<\/p>\n

But the 26-year-old acknowledged he was mentally and physically tired by the fourth quarter. Austin Reaves<\/a>, who has averaged 40 points in games Doncic missed, misfired on his first eight shots and finished with just 11 points.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers star LeBron James dunks in front of Philadelphia\u2019s Joel Embiid, left, during the first half Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Chris Szagola \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Calling on James as their third scoring option showcases the Lakers\u2019 embarrassment of riches.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis play throughout the game gave us such a lift,\u201d coach JJ Redick<\/a> said, noting James\u2019 screening and ability to create advantages. \u201c… LeBron was like our connector tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trailing by 10 with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter, the Lakers started the third on a 9-3 run to cut the deficit to one before building a 10-point lead with 1:40 left in the quarter. Then James\u2019 heroics helped them hold on. <\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton had 14 points on seven-for-seven shooting with 12 rebounds. Rui Hachimura<\/a> scored 17 points as all five starters finished in double figures to hold off a fourth-quarter charge from the 76ers, who were led by 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds from star guard Tyrese Maxey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the beautiful thing about our team,\u201d Reaves said, \u201cis it\u2019s not even just us three.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Doncic and Reaves off to career-best starts, the Lakers are 11-5 without James, who missed the first 14 games because of sciatica. The NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer had never missed the beginning of a season \u2014 in his life, James stressed. Missing training camp, preseason games and practices affected James not only physically but also mentally. James had to remind himself to fall \u201cin love with the process\u201d to rediscover his rhythm.<\/p>\n

His trust paid off Sunday as he scored 12 of the Lakers\u2019 25 fourth-quarter points.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to be reminded every now and then of what you\u2019re capable of,\u201d Redick said. \u201cFor him to have the injuries, and then to sort of start the season playing catch-up in a way, and start the season playing catch-up with a team that is also in a really good rhythm, and that\u2019s, as a player, I don\u2019t care how good you are, that\u2019s tough to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three weeks shy of his 41st birthday, James missed the previous game in Boston because of sciatica and joint arthritis in his left foot. While he made the winning assist in the Lakers\u2019 thrilling victory in Toronto<\/a>, he also lost his 1,297-game streak of scoring 10 or more points. It felt like he finally was starting to show signs of his age.<\/p>\n

Then he unleashed a signature one-handed tomahawk dunk in transition during the first quarter against the 76ers. It was a not-so-gentle reminder that James won\u2019t ride into the twilight of his career quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust at 40 years old, I mean, it just takes awhile for my body to kind of get back into a rhythm,\u201d James said. \u201cAnd so it felt good tonight to kind of feel like myself a little bit, being able to run and jump and cut and catch my second wind a lot faster tonight. Hopefully that stays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every made basket from James made the Philadelphia fans clamor for more. Even the road fans hope James stays longer too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0LeBron James needed to send this message. He still sits on his throne. The Lakers superstar scored 10…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":432851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[200841,38124,17378,1582,276,113810,3603,164316,2961,8604,193822,3363,224,5337,3365,1311,24566,5613,101645,2030],"class_list":{"0":"post-432850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-76er","9":"tag-assist","10":"tag-austin-reaves","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-consecutive-point","14":"tag-daughter","15":"tag-first-quarter","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-last-game","19":"tag-lebron-james","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-luka-doncic","23":"tag-philadelphia","24":"tag-rebound","25":"tag-second","26":"tag-triple-double","27":"tag-win"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115682985028561879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}