Lakers edge Thunder, win 6th straight, including 3rd in OT

LeBron James had 25 points, seven assists and six rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers won their sixth consecutive game, holding off the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder 114-113 in overtime on Wednesday.

Montrezl Harrell scored 20 points, Dennis Schroder contributed 19 and Kyle Kuzma added 15 for the Lakers, who played without Anthony Davis (Achilles) and Alex Caruso (hand) for the second game in a row.

Al Horford had 25 points, eight assists and eight rebounds for Oklahoma City. The Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (knee), who leads the team in scoring and assists, missed the contest, as did Isaiah Roby (foot, third straight game) and Theo Maledon (health and safety protocols, second in a row).

Kenrich Williams scored 24 points, Luguentz Dort had 17 and Hamidou Diallo collected 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who have lost three of their last four.

It was the third straight overtime contest for the Lakers, the last two against the Thunder.

Wes Matthews, who finished with 10 points, converted a 3-pointer with 41.9 seconds remaining to give the Lakers a 114-111 lead. Dort’s layup closed to gap to one with 30.2 seconds left.

James airballed a jumper with 7.8 seconds left, but he got his hands on the inbounds pass by the Thunder before Dort’s prayer from near midcourt missed.

Dort’s three-point play with 49 seconds left in regulation gave the Thunder a 103-102 lead. After Kuzma missed a wide-open 11-footer on the baseline, Horford sank two free throws with 24.4 seconds left for a 105-102 Oklahoma City lead before James’ 3-pointer with 19.6 seconds remaining forced overtime.

Dort misfired on a 3-pointer before the final horn sounded in regulation.

Oklahoma City carried an 84-80 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Thunder roared to a 43-23 lead early in the second quarter after a 3-pointer by Darius Miller. However, the Lakers sliced the margin to six before Diallo scored the final four points of the quarter for a 67-57 edge at the break.

Williams led all scorers with 17 points in the first half.

–Field Level Media