MY ACCOUNT
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel says LeBron James scoring 14 final-quarter points and leading the side to victory over the Sacramento Kings is “just who he is”.
James had shot six-of-17 from the field for the game, before stepping up in the fourth quarter to lead the Lakers past the Kings 122-114 on Tuesday.
The four-time MVP finished with 31 points, sinking two three-pointers in a row with under five minutes to go, turning around his shooting struggles from earlier in the game.
“You always know that’s a possibility,” Vogel said at the post-game news conference. “If he’s not having a good shooting night, like anybody, you coach him.
“You have to coach him like everybody else but you never lose belief that he’s going to do what he did in the fourth quarter. That’s just who he is.
“If anything, I think the tweaks we made tonight were about what he was doing on the defensive side.
“He was exerting energy trying to double down. We had to pull back some of that.”
The victory means the Lakers have won three in a row after a recent five-game skid, improving to 20-19.
James has scored 30 or more points in eight of the Lakers’ past nine games since Anthony Davis went down with a knee injury on December 18.
The Lakers star has averaged 28.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game this season.
