Los Angeles Lakers survived the played in following their crucial overtime win over Timberwolves as Davis insists it was a real battle.
LA Lakers claims win in the play in over Timberwolves following five overtime minutes, they finally claimed a postseason berth that seemed all but unattainable just a couple of months ago.
LeBron James had 30 points and 10 rebounds, and the Lakers snagged the seventh spot in the Western Conference playoffs with a 108-102 victory over the short-handed Timberwolves in the NBA’s play-in tournament Tuesday night.
Conley hit three clutch free throws to tie it after Davis foolishly fouled him on a 3-point attempt, but the Lakers coolly kept rolling toward their 10th win in 12 games overall. Their reward is a date with the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the first round starting Sunday.
“It took everything out of us to get to where we are, and it took more out of us tonight,” Davis said. “But we’ve got a couple of days before we go to Memphis to start preparing for them. It’s been a battle. It’s been an up-and-down season for us, but now is the time to show who we are, and we showed it tonight.”
Dennis Schroder scored 21 points, drilling a tiebreaking 3-pointer on a pass from James with 1.4 seconds left in regulation before icing the win with two free throws with 8.4 seconds remaining in the extra session for the Lakers, who started the season 2-10 and sat six games below .500 at the trade deadline.
“Once you get to the end of things, to have everyone healthy, to be playing in the type of rhythm we’re playing in, to defend at the level that we’re defending at, going into the most important time of the year, you can’t ask for a better situation,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
The Wolves forced overtime when Conley hit his free throws after Davis stepped on his foot after he had already released a 3-point attempt. Davis and James said they had a mix-up about who was supposed to defend the shooter in the corner.
“The play was between me and AD, and we discussed it on the bench, and then we moved forward,” James said. “We’ve still got five more minutes to play. That’s how we started overtime. We was able to recalibrate. Get our game back.”
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