With 19 of his 34 points coming in a dominant fourth quarter, LeBron James helped the Los Angeles Lakers overcome a 21-point deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers 116–112 on Wednesday night.

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In the rivals’ final regular-season match as co-tenants of their downtown venue, James hit a long pass to Cam Reddish for a slam that highlighted a shocking victory for the Lakers after Kawhi Leonard missed a 12-footer with five seconds remaining.
James, 39, was the focal point of it all, scoring more points in the fourth quarter (19–16) than the Clippers combined while making five of his season-high seven 3-pointers. Of the 13 baskets the Lakers made in the last quarter, he either scored or assisted on 11.

“It’s just a feeling when you feel like everything you put up is going in,” James explained. “I simply maintained consistency. I wasn’t taking foolish chances. I continued to participate in the offence. I simply tried to control the speed of the game, and my teammates did a fantastic job of finding me. It’s merely a zone. Not really sure how to put it. Wish you could remain there indefinitely.”

The Clippers lost back-to-back games for the first time since December 23. Leonard scored 26 points, while James Harden finished with 23 points and nine assists. The Clippers gave up 39 points in that disastrous fourth quarter due to seven mistakes. The Clippers were missing starting centre Ivica Zubac due to illness and All-Star Paul George, who missed his second straight game due to a painful left knee.

The Clippers coach Tyronn Lue stated, “It’s just one game.” played a strong third of the game. did not complete the game. I never allow a single setback or unfortunate loss to diminish the work we’ve done and the foundation we’ve laid. We were up 21 points, so it’s a sad loss, but this is a terrific team, and you lose when you don’t play your role and take care of the basketball.”

In the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Clippers had a 98-77 lead, but James led a 29-8 run in just 7:34. With four minutes remaining, Anthony Davis’ free throws tied the score at 106, and a few seconds later, James found Rui Hachimura for the game-winning 3-pointer.

With 1:12 remaining, D’Angelo Russell’s 3-pointer put the Lakers ahead 114-108. Harden and Leonard then scored on drives to the hoop, while James missed two shots for the Lakers. To the pleasure of thousands of Lakers fans attending a “road” game, James found Reddish for the game-winning basket after Leonard’s final attempt missed the mark.

“How can you be surprised with some of the things he does?” Russell enquired about James. “Just by being himself, he’s a big part of the reason we won this game, but a lot of guys locked in defensively and gave us what we needed. We battled as a group.”

This season, the Lakers defeated the Clippers three out of four times, taking the season series for the first time since 2011–12.

For the Lakers, Davis finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, Russell finished with 18 and Hachimura added 17.

When the long-named Staples Centre opened in 1999, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the Clippers and Lakers also moved in. For the next twenty-five years, the NBA teams lived together in the same building. They played each other four times a year in a rivalry known as the Hallway Series because their locker rooms are located in the same hallway, roughly a hundred feet apart.

This September, the Clippers will bid farewell to this period when they relocate to Steve Ballmer’s opulent new Inglewood venue, Intuit Dome. Ballmer saw that the Clippers needed a permanent home in order to fully emerge from the shadow of the Lakers’ 17 NBA titles and the banners that accompanied them on the walls of the shared arena, and the billionaire moved quickly to make that happen.

The Clippers have made progress, though, as they have finished with a better record than the Lakers in 10 of the last 11 seasons, losing only in 2020 when the Lakers won their 17th championship. The power dynamic in Los Angeles still entirely favours the Lakers.

Although it has never happened, the teams might yet play each other in a postseason series this spring.

Reddish made his 14-game absence on the field due to a sprained right ankle go back.