LeBron James outduels Kevin Durant despite painful shin injury

PHOENIX – LeBron James grimaced as he ran with a slight limp to the visitors’ locker room at the Footprint Center Friday night.

But even a painful shin injury suffered in the first quarter couldn’t spoil the night for James, who had 32 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists to defeat Kevin Durant and lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a victory of 122-119 in tournament against the Phoenix Suns.

James and Durant engaged in an epic duel, with Durant finishing with 38 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Durant scored seven points in the fourth, but James found Cam Reddish in the corner for an open 3 that gave the Lakers a 118-113 lead with 1:10 left that the Suns couldn’t overcome.

James also had to shake off an unintentional hit he received from Durant on a drive to the basket with 4:22 left in the first quarter when Durant’s knee hit James in the left shin. James had to compose himself along the baseline for a while before having his shin treated on the bench.

He said the injury was painful after the match and James could be seen walking with a slight limp. The Lakers play again on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers at home.

“It never let up,” James said of the shin. “[It] pretty much locked up on the spot. So I tried to keep my composure, make sure I was okay and try to keep it spread out and as loose as possible, play the game and be efficient.

“It’s quite painful right now. Obviously, because the adrenaline calms down and it freezes, now it’s quite painful.”

The Lakers (4-5) really needed this win, not only because it was their first tournament game of the season, but also because it ended a three-game losing streak in ‘a four-game road trip.

Coach Darvin Ham made a lineup change to try to energize the team, starting Reddish (17 points) and bringing Austin Reaves off the bench for the first time this season.

“Everyone agreed that we needed to change the music a little bit,” Ham said. “It wasn’t a demotion for Austin. It was just a realignment. If anyone remembers those great San Antonio teams where everyone knew Manu [Ginobili] was a starter. But sometimes, to balance your squad, you need to place a player of his stature in a reserve role. So when the starters go to sit down and take their break, you don’t totally fall off the cliff. You have balance in the second unit.

Reaves and Ham spoke Thursday night about the decision. The swingman responded by making 6 of 11 shots and finishing with 15 points and seven assists. Reaves had started since March 22 of last season.

“I’m a competitor,” Reaves said. “Honestly, I don’t want to have that conversation. I wish I played better so I didn’t have those conversations, to win as a team. But my parents taught me at a very young age that the coach is the coach. And his decision, Regardless of whether you agree with it or not, you respect that. That’s what I did. We had a good dialogue about what we thought we could do to be better as a unit. Winning is the main thing.

“I get it. I see the writing on the wall. I kind of saw it coming. I didn’t play very well. I had games here and there. And as a team, We haven’t played very well, obviously this road trip, we’ve been 0-3 so far. [we] we had to make things happen.”

The Lakers made 12 of 27 3-pointers and had strong second-chance efforts. On perhaps the biggest possession of the game, the Lakers got three offensive rebounds before James hit Reddish for the corner 3 to give them a five-point lead with 1:10 to play.

Los Angeles outscored Phoenix 33-23 and hit five triples in the fourth.

“I think this is the first time we’ve finally overcome the obstacle on this road trip,” James said. “…We were finally able to pull off one of those dynamic shots, and once that dynamic shot opened, it felt like the floodgates opened. [early in the fourth] and then the guys really started knocking them over.

“We played from behind in a lot of our games and couldn’t get the lead in some of the last games we lost. So it was a good feeling.”

At the end of the night, James, a huge Ohio State fan, also managed to lash out at rival Michigan and its football coach, Jim Harbaugh, when asked about the defense from Phoenix.

James couldn’t resist a hit against Michigan and Harbaugh, who has been suspended for the remainder of the Big Ten regular season as part of an ongoing NCAA investigation into alleged sign-stealing.

“I think we have knowledge of Coach [Frank] Vogel and his coaching staff,” James said of the former Lakers coach when asked about playing against the Phoenix defense. “We know he’s going to change defenses and he has a lot of defensive packages, a lot of schemes. So just trying to read the game and see at what point, what is the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, what are they going in? We have some history with Coach Frank, so we’re able to have that plan and steal some signals as well.

“So that was the key to our success, and the best thing about tonight was we were able to pick up on those signals [and] we still have [are] be able to play on Sunday. We are not suspended like this team from the North. »