When the Los Angeles Lakers came back from a seven-point deficit to beat the Denver Nuggets in overtime on Saturday, their main heroes were Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic. Reeves scored nine of his final 20 points in the fourth quarter, including intentionally missed free throws that he drained to send the game into overtime. Doncic scored six straight points late in the fourth quarter and then hit the game-winning jumper before overtime ended.
But this win was a team effort. LeBron James’ statistics were not outstanding: 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 5 turnovers. But with about a minute left, he made one of the biggest plays of the game, grabbing a defensive rebound and dove to the floor to recover the rebound.
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That resulted in a jump ball between him and Jamal Murray. When James missed the jump ball, teammate Marcus Smart followed up with a steal and a fast-break layup to give the Lakers the lead.
After Los Angeles won 127-125 in overtime, head coach JJ Redick seemed to joke that he had never seen James legally steal the ball before.
“I told him after the game – I said in 23 years of watching you play in the NBA and three years of watching you play in high school, I’ve never seen you do a full extension dive like that, and he said, ‘You’re right. I’ve never done that.’ It was awesome. I know he’s going to feel that way tomorrow. It’s a winning game.”
Lately, James has done a good job of taking a step back and accepting the reality that being the Lakers’ third scoring option is best for them. This season, he averaged 21.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7 assists per game, while shooting 50.5% from the field.
He has yet to reach the 30-point mark since Jan. 13 and is averaging a career-low 15.8 shots per game. But given the mileage on him, and the performance of Doncic and Reeves, James clearly needs to play a different role than he has throughout his basketball career, and it seems like he is finding his niche in this changed role.
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This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick on LeBron James diving to steal the ball in clutch moments