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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – Anthony Davis had 33 points and 11 rebounds, LeBron James added 27 points and 14 assists, and the short-handed Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 105-104 on Sunday night.
After James missed a 3-pointer — his 10th attempt of the night — in the closing seconds, Utah had a chance to win the game, but Will Hardy called timeout as Collin Sexton was driving to the basket for what looked like the go-ahead bucket. Sexton then fumbled the inbounds pass with 2.1 seconds left and couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer.
“We like to let people go in that situation,” Hardy explained. “When Collin started, he did a retreat, dribbled backwards, and I started calling timeout. It’s obviously loud. The hope would have been to have a few more seconds than 2.1. It’s hard because you don’t know exactly how it would have ended up had they not blown the whistle and everybody kept playing. Maybe Collin would have finished it. I hope we get another situation like that and I’ll just start walking to the bench and sit down when he goes full court.”
James made a running left-handed hook with 41.0 seconds left but Walker Kessler made a putback on the other end to keep the Jazz within a basket.
Lauri Markkanen scored 22 points and John Collins had 21 as the Jazz lost for the eighth time in nine games.
Davis scored 16 points in the third quarter and James took over in the fourth when Davis was resting. James made four straight shots, including a reverse layup and dunk, that pushed the Lakers’ lead to 101-92.
James filled the playmaker role and Davis’ strong play gave Los Angeles a little cushion. Still, the weary Lakers had to hold off the Jazz’s late run.
Utah commits more turnovers than any team in the league and it hurt them again with two key giveaways down the stretch. The Jazz had 15 turnovers that led to 20 Lakers points.
James topped 15,000 career made field goals in the second quarter, becoming the second player in NBA history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (15,837) to reach that mark.
Utah visits Oklahoma City on Tuesday to open a seven-game trip.