The match: the Lakers on the line
Never worried during their first duel on Sunday, the Lakers this time felt all the trouble in the world to get rid of the Rockets on Tuesday at Staples Center. They were up to 11 points behind in the second half and had to rely on their “Big 3” to reverse the trend. For the first time since they were teammates, the three leaders pulled out all the stops at the same time: LeBron James scored 30 points including 14 in the last quarter alone, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis each added 27.
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Led by their rookie Jalen Green (24 points), the Rockets stayed in the game until the very last second and would have imposed themselves on the buzzer if Kevin Porter Jr’s last attempt had not been a little too long. The Texas franchise remains last in the conference (1 win, 6 losses).
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The Frenchie: Rudy Gobert glouton
Conversely, Utah confirmed its status as the only leader in the West (6 wins, 1 loss) by beating Sacramento (119-113) in the wake of Donovan Mitchell (36 points) and Mike Conley (30 points). The French pivot Rudy Gobert, newly elected player of the week, was certainly more discreet in attack but still had a decisive impact on the meeting: not only did he achieve a huge double-double (12 points, 20 rebounds) but He also added 4 blocks and especially managed 6 decisive free throws at the end of the game to keep the Kings at bay.
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The perf: Chris Paul in history
Author of 18 assists against New Orleans, Chris Paul (36) climbed last night on the podium of the most prolific distributors in the history of the NBA. Passing at the same time Mark Jackson and Steve Nash, the leader of the Suns now has 10,346 assists and is now only preceded by Jason Kidd (12,091) and John Stockton (15,806), probably untouchable. In addition, his team won even if it suffered for a long time: Phoenix was indeed up to 20 points behind against the Pelicans before reversing the trend back from the locker room (112-100) to return to balance (3 wins, 3 losses).
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