“A bet isn’t official until you look a man in the eye, so I had to look him in the eye and I was able to win him.”
To the delight of his teammates and with James still without facing the basket, the shot came in and caused the Lakers bench to burst into celebration.
While his repertoire of extraordinary skills is wide and varied, the three points of interest without glances have not been a regularity for James.
So, after surprising his teammates on Tuesday, James paid tribute to Steph Curry, one of the best shooters in the NBA and someone who has made sightless shooting more common.
“Because ten times again, he’s going for Steph.”
The ridiculous, three-point lead was the culmination of the Lakers ’117-100 victory over the Rockets.
Behind James ’26 points and Anthony Davis’ 19 points, the current NBA champions improved their record to the best 9-3 in the league and are now undefeated on the road.
“This situation is crazy”
For the Rockets, it has been a turbulent start to the 2020-21 season.
After Tuesday’s loss, in which the Rockets followed the Lakers up to 30 points in some stages, Harden called the team’s situation “crazy.”
Despite the additions of veterans like John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, the Rockets ’normally free offense has seemed discombobled this year.
And this is characterized by Harden’s own struggles. The 31-year-old has won the NBA title in the past three seasons, but has not scored more than 20 points in four straight games, his longest career since 2012.
“We’re not even close, honestly, to this team (obviously the current champions) and all the other elite teams out there,” Harden said. “You can differentiate between these last two games.
“Obviously the chemistry, in terms of talent, everything, and it was clear as I said these last games. From the start of the game, they were an aggressive and veteran team, obviously a championship team and one of the best teams we have in this league “.
One star is missing, leaning on another
With Kyrie Irving missing for his fourth straight game for personal reasons, the Brooklyn Nets had to rely on another superstar to help them get out of a hole Tuesday night.
The Nets, led by Kevin Durant’s 34 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds, came back to win with an 18-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Denver Nuggets by 122-116 Tuesday night.
During the game, Durant overtook Elgin Baylor, Dwyane Wade and Adrian Dantley on the all-time goal list and went on to 28th of all time.
In Irving’s absence, Nets CEO Sean Marks said the organization was “aware of a video on social media with Kyrie Irving at a family reunion.”
“We are reviewing circumstances with both Kyrie and the NBA in order to determine compliance with safety and health protocols,” Marks said. “Kyrie stays out of the team for personal reasons.
“The date of his return has not yet been finalized. In the meantime, we will continue to focus on our organizational goals. Kyrie will have the opportunity to address his absence when he is willing to do so.”
Irving hasn’t commented publicly yet.
More postponed games
Meanwhile, there have been six NBA games postponed this season, due to the league’s safety and health protocols.
For the third time in less than a week, the Boston Celtics postponed a game due to Covid-19 problems.
The home game scheduled for Wednesday at TD Garden against the Orlando Magic was called off after the league said in a statement that testing and tracking contacts within the Celtics organization have left the team missing the eight players. available required by the NBA for the Celtics to take the court.
In addition, it was also announced that Tuesday’s Utah Jazz game against the Washington Wizards has been postponed because the Wizards would not have all eight players required in the league. It means five games have been called off since Sunday.