ORLANDO — Luke Kennard made the game-winning shot and LeBron James made history with his 1,612th regular-season game played as the Los Angeles Lakers extended their winning streak to nine with a 105-104 victory over the Orlando Magic on Saturday.
With L.A. trailing 104-102, Marcus Smart laced an inbounds pass from the baseline to Kennard on the left wing, and Kennard hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds remaining.
“As soon as he caught it and then released it, yeah, everybody knew it was in,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Orlando’s Jalen Suggs missed a 77-foot heave at the buzzer and the Lakers mobbed Kennard near center court, with James picking Kennard up during the celebration.
“It feels good,” said Kennard, who was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline last month. “Just being part of a new team, obviously you’re building new relationships, trying to find your role, what you do.
“But they brought me here for a reason, and that was to shoot. And it feels good. Feels good the way that everybody reacted, obviously.”
James, who passed Robert Parish for the most regular-season games played in NBA history on Saturday, was nearly the hero. Smart found him at the hoop with another perfect inbounds pass with 2.6 seconds remaining in the fourth, but Orlando’s Paolo Banchero blocked James’ layup attempt out of bounds, albeit after making a lot of contact with James’ right arm. It was one of several sequences involving the referees that Redick expressed disappointment with after the game.
“Again, another night where explanations [by the officials] just get changed based on a whim,” Redick said. “We had to overcome a lot tonight. And by that you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
After leading by as many as 14 points early, with Luka Doncic scoring 16 points of his 33 points in the first quarter, L.A. trailed by five with 50.0 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Austin Reaves (26 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists) scored a layup; Deandre Ayton (9 points, 12 rebounds) hit a free throw; and Kennard (13 points) hit the 3 to fuel a 6-0 run to finish it off.
The Lakers are now 22-6 in clutch-time situations this season.
“Just a sense of calmness,” James said when asked about the key to L.A.’s late-game execution. “There’s no pressure. We’re just calm in those moments. We know we can get stops, and we know we can make plays. And we did that.”
Indeed, James’ defensive pressure late in the fourth quarter helped L.A. have the opportunity for a game-winning shot. With Orlando inbounding the ball with 5.2 seconds left, leading 104-102, James smothered Banchero on the sideline, and he lost the ball out of bounds, awarding L.A. the possession — a ruling that was upheld after a video review.
“We had a game plan not to guard the inbounds [passer],” James said. “Try to make him inbound it to the short corner. Marcus was kind of being that free safety. And we were going for the steal first before we were going to foul. And [Banchero] mishandled the ball a little bit and it hit my leg and then he kind of … you could see his fingertips [touch it]. So, it was a good call.”
While James’ final stat line — 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and three steals — was not overwhelming, he still broke Parish’s mark in style. Less than a minute after tipoff, he stole a pass by Desmond Bane and streaked down the court for a tomahawk dunk that caused the Kia Center crowd to erupt.
“It was very fitting,” James said of the play.
As electric as James’ dunk was early, it was the team’s execution late — between Lakers assistant coach Greg St. Jean’s play call, Smart’s pass and Kennard’s shot late — that allowed them to escape with the win.
“Smart had to make a couple reads and ended up finding me there,” Kennard said. “It was the right read. Make or miss, I think we would have lived with the results because we executed both plays at the end. But it was good that we executed it.”
