“LeBron is the greatest Point Guard in the league” – James Worthy on Lakers beating Thunder 129-120

“LeBron is the greatest Point Guard in the league” – James Worthy on Lakers beating Thunder 129-120

Sportset Lakers driven by your Southern California Honda dealers Chris McGee James Worthy and Derek fiser the Lakers with a big win they sna the losing streak in OKC huge individual performances we’ll get to that in a little bit uh the big story heading into the game was the changes in the starting

Lineup Vando went into the starting lineup DLo came off the bench both guys did their jobs and played great we’ll get into that later this in my opinion one of the most complete wins uh of the season when you look at the all-around game James yeah yeah given given the

Fact what they’ve been through the last uh few weeks we talked about the inseon uh mid-season tournament and the injuries and you know not being able to get a win on the road sometimes you have to make a little change uh first it starts with the the the mental stage and

I thought they had they covered that very well and and the subtle changes that uh the that the coach made to to put in to put in some defense you know and I thought both reddish and uh and and and vanderbel came in with with the

Energy and I think it was was contagious but I think they also found the formula of when the rest LeBron you know what when that’s critical he got a good rest Came Back 40 points and led his team to a victory tonight yeah I mean you know the Lakers

Plus nine from the 3point line uh the the the change in the lineup we thought was uh and and was more impactful defensively in terms of like just even watching Van’s body language and stance on the defensive is energy a big block that we’ll talk about later um but the

Offense and the shot making you know we talked last week about scoring 108 109 points you know even 111 points in not get done in the league today is it’s tough to win consistently so if the Lakers can make shots uh and and be able to score 115

120 then that gives you a much better chance in that you know it’s a old school thing of make or Miss league but it is really what a lot of it was tonight and was a really quality win for the team LeBron was ridiculous tonight let’s go back to Oklahoma City he’s with

Mike jell all right Lebron 15 of your season High 40 come in the fourth quarter saw a couple of the threes uh and the bucket at The Rim Where mod is you have to get into to get a difficult Victory here in OKC uh last time we came here we came

Here on a tough back to back um started the game out well but we just lost energy lost steam so you know us having a day in between our last game and us having uh I mean this was one of the must-win one of the first must-win games

Of the season for us and we understand how well this team been playing but we was able to to play a really good game on the road to close the road trip up your birthday is coming up in a couple of days but this was the first time this

Year you scored more than your age so that’s pretty good no that’s pretty good I mean in a sense that uh you know it helped us get this win versus a very good team in the Western Conference that we really needed we desperate for win tonight so um you know desperate times

Calls for desperate measures shift in the starting lineup you you guys go bigger Vanderbilt comes in a lot of Link defensively LeBron what’s kind of just the team thinking behind that what did you see in the first rendition tonight um I think you just said it you know we

Add a lot of length um you know from the perimeter to to our wings all the way down to our Center obviously in ad we have the ability to uh guard you know multiple positions switch a lot of actions but uh more importantly we able to clean glass and I thought uh when

They miss shots especially in that second and third quarter we clean glass they gave us an opportunity to score another end last one for you get a brief rest and then Boston comes in for Christmas day You’ played more on Christmas than anybody scored more on Christmas than anybody what is playing

On that day with the eyes of the NBA watching media uh it’s one of the best days the NBA have um has in our in our season obviously you got open tonight you got Christmas you got playoffs now End season tournament whatever the case may be so um you know it’s always

Special but uh more importantly it’s a day for being around family being an opportunity for myself to be a giver you know and give to my loved ones and people that supported me throughout my journey um every single day since I began this um and uh so it’s all about

You know my family my friends and my kids obviously uh my wife my mom so on and so on um but it’s a great day for Sports in general you know especially for basketball too and just probably this year especially bronnie right just after what you guys went through

Christmas celebrating uh he’s the best Straight Up appreciate it LeBron James what a performance by the Lakers but especially their leader he said uh one of the first must win games of the season and you know we heard ad say that after the last game we

Have to win and you look at the most 40-point games Michael Jordan had 173 of them Kobe 122 James Harden still playing 101 AI Allen Iverson was 79 tonight LeBron James gets his 75th 40o game but James he also goes five for five from three perfect nine

For n from the free throw line has had seven rebounds had seven assists he scored 11 straight at the end of that fourth quarter in 15 of 17 points in that four I’m speechless I know uh the fact that he’s still doing this Gater is just

A tribute to you know his his dedication and commitment to his skill you know it doesn’t matter how old he is he’s committed and he knew his team needed leadership tonight and uh you know he was confident with his game got a lot of points in the paint you know he drove to

The paint got a lot of layups I think that opened up some of those threes and when he saw one go down hey it was on yeah LeBron is like I mean we we have not seen this before like let’s not even act like we have no we we have not most

Of the time as a professional athlete gets older into the latter stages of his career you start to you know maybe lose some of the the speed athleticism the ability to get above the rim to do certain things so then the game kind of transitions to maybe more perimeter

Oriented you know maybe you shooting more jumpers you don’t see him going to the rim as much not as good defensively he doesn’t block as many shots and so then to watch LeBron still be able to basically do everything that he wants to do and he’s added the ability to have a

Five for five night from the three-point line a N9 for9 night from the free throw line on top of the Strand the power the attacks at The Rim still being able to dunk the ball on anybody that wants to challenge him um it’s just a unique you

Know athlete and and and person as well um you know we’re we’re gifted to be able to watch it on a nightly basis and hopefully he can get some more rest in the team as well uh get ready for a good Christmas Day contest well documented how they’ve played the last two weeks

We’ve talked about it everyone’s talked about on the national stage as well they were one in five in their last six they lost four in a row when I came on the Air Tonight mentioned that complete Game 37 assists that’s a season High under 10 turnovers they finished with nine

Turnovers on the road 46 points in the paint um 16 fast break points and then you’re 16 of 32 50% from three complete game but the story was the switch and the change they made going into tonight in the starting lineup cam reddish remained in there V along with tan ad

And LeBron a defensive minded approach and it paid dividends tonight cam reddish uh and Vando with their length their hustle you had already talked about it but I also want to give DLo credit DLo comes off the bench plays 17 minutes 15 points three of six and three

He looked loose he looked relaxed great attitude that was big and then ruy gets the extended minutes we’ve all wanted that got 30 minutes tonight and and he goes for 21 points the bench 47 so when we say complete game game big game you want to give everyone credit cuz they

All deserve it’s hard to just pick one person to talk about cuz it really was a team it was a collective effort you know LeBron ad obviously they do what they do but it was a collective effort I thought vanderbelt reddish at the tone defensively I really like a players who

Were sacrificed for the team we saw uh Austin Reeves do it you know didn’t lose a step and tonight DLo you know he probably learned from that he saw Austin Reef do it he he came in and was very effective hitting some big shots uh getting the ball moving so uh this team

You know it’s like they don’t know how to win they played well before good defense got a little bit out of sync with injuries tough schedule but they know how to get it back and tonight was an example of a meeting of the minds and you know you could see that it didn’t

Didn’t matter what was happening whether they were missing shots or making shots or whatever the energy was there the effort was there on the defensive end as well and uh that’s why they they they yield them a nice Victory I would and then I I I just want to touch on the

Fact that if the Lakers had lost this game okay tan Prince 3 for S Jared Vanderbilt 1 for four yep cam reddish two for seven y so if my math is correct that’s six out of 18 mhm for a grand total of 16 points who cares yeah because the Lakers

Won they win and so this idea that like oh you know these guys aren’t doing enough when the Lakers lose well they didn’t open up the record books with scoring tonight yeah but the Lakers won so it’s it’s that’s ultimately the only stat that really matters obviously Hall

Of Fame guys are like they wake up and the stat she just fills up like they step out of the bed stats go up that’s what that’s what guys do in addition to that how many points were they responsible for blocking shots steals things you have to look at the whole the

Whole aspect of the game yeah they responsible for a lot for a lot of points out there great Point all right let’s hear from Darin H he’s speaking with the media how did you think the starting five looked foreign foree foreign Speech [Applause] an ally has enemy double kill an ally has been de an enemy has been [Applause] [Applause] Deated [Applause] You have defeated an enemy double kill an enemy has been defeated an ally has been [Applause] defeated your team has destroyed the [Applause] Tower an enemy has been [Applause] defeated an enemy has been deated an ally has defeated fore Speee for still Spee come Me me me See

“LeBron is the greatest Point Guard in the league” – James Worthy on Lakers beating Thunder 129-120