{"id":58133,"date":"2025-12-11T06:14:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58133\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T06:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:14:21","slug":"philadelphia-crowd-roars-as-lebron-james-delivers-prime-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58133\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia crowd roars as LeBron James delivers prime performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 LeBron James doesn\u2019t silence the crowd when he hits the road, he raises fans to their feet in exhilaration and gets them roaring in appreciation \u2014 as he did down the stretch in Philadelphia \u2014 for the clutch shots that could be the last they see in person as retirement speculation swirls.<\/p>\n

The 76ers, well, they could have done without James throwing his game back to his prime.<\/p>\n

In his first game since his NBA record double-digit scoring streak ended, James not only hit that mark in the first half, but he also scored 10 straight points in the fourth quarter in the decisive stretch that sent the Lakers to a 112-108 victory over the Sixers on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

James scored 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting in a vintage performance that belied the fact the aging All-Star has battled injuries that curtailed his summer workouts and cost him the start of the season. He sat out Friday against Boston with sciatica, which kept him sidelined for the first 14 games this season, and left foot joint arthritis. <\/p>\n

The brief time off after James\u2019 double-digit streak ended Thursday at Toronto helped him work through his injuries and get him healthy \u2014 healthier, at least \u2014 in time to face Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the Sixers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still not 100% but I felt a lot better tonight than I did coming out of the Toronto game,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 10 point-run in the fourth went like this: a long 2, a 3-pointer, another 3 that snapped a tie with 1:12 left and a 20-foot fadeaway that made it 110-105 and put the game away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never gets old,\u201d James said. \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing you won\u2019t be able to get back when you\u2019re done playing. That arena. That excitement of going out, the boos, the cheers, whatever the case. So do it in a win, it\u2019s even more important. That\u2019s what I hope, I\u2019ll come up clutch in a win. That\u2019s even more exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

James could use some excitement in a season that Lakers have so far successfully navigated without much of his presence. James, who will turn 41 on Dec. 30, played 36 minutes in the Lakers\u2019 123-120 win over Toronto on Thursday night. The game saw the end of James\u2019 streak of 1,297 double-digit scoring games<\/a> when the NBA\u2019s career points leader finished with eight points.<\/p>\n

By his own description, he\u2019s not in rhythm yet, after missing the entire preseason and all but seven games of the regular season with an injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never not started a basketball season in my life since I started when I was 9 years old,\u201d James said. \u201cWhen the season started, I was ready to go. It was definitely challenging to me mentally just sitting on the bench. Not being able to practice with the guys, not being able to get the reps in with the guys. Definitely challenging. I understand it\u2019s a process and I\u2019ve always fell in love with the process more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

James wasn\u2019t the only returning star for the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Luka Doncic was back after he missed the last two games as he traveled to his hometown of Ljubljana, Slovenia where fiancee Anamaria Goltes gave birth to their daughter, Oliva.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, two girls, they\u2019re going to make my life hell, for sure,\u201d Doncic said with a laugh. \u201cAll jokes aside, it\u2019s the best thing in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic ripped off a triple-double in his first game as a father or two with 31 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to play the game for them,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cWhen they grow up, they can see what their father did, basketball-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lakers coach JJ Redick has two children with his wife, Chelsea, said before the game he hoped Doncic would have enough energy to play after the long trip. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do know there was some travel involved to a different continent,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping he\u2019s himself today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic \u2014 who leads the league with 35.3 points in his first full season with the Lakers \u2014 was mostly himself, though the five-time All-Star didn\u2019t have a sharp shooting touch but still played 39 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuka clearly with all the travel he\u2019s had this week wasn\u2019t necessarily at his best scoring the basketball,\u201d Redick said. \u201cStill did a lot of great stuff for us. LeBron was our connector tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was the difference for the Lakers and easily outplayed his fellow 2024 Paris Games gold medalist in Embiid (missed 17 of 21 shots overall; 0 for 6 on 3s).<\/p>\n

James may play another season. He may call it quits at the end of this season.<\/p>\n

Either way, the Philly crowd of 20,431 sure showed their appreciation for a game when James came up big in big moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it\u2019s important to be reminded every now and then of what you\u2019re capable of,\u201d Redick said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 LeBron James doesn\u2019t silence the crowd when he hits the road, he raises fans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5956,4172,31835,5955,18831,20577,30547,31834,4794,10377,915,40,28,69,1002,71,70,726,31836,12920],"class_list":{"0":"post-58133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-j-j-redick","11":"tag-joel-embiid","12":"tag-lebron-james","13":"tag-local-news-for-apple","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-basketball","18":"tag-new-jersey","19":"tag-pa-state-wire","20":"tag-pennsylvania","21":"tag-philadelphia","22":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","23":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","24":"tag-philadelphia-news","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-sports-retirements","27":"tag-tyrese-maxey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}