Thursday night featured one of the best games of the 2024-25 NBA regular season. The New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers provided basketball fans with a classic. The Lakers just edged the Knicks in a tight 113-109 overtime thriller at Crypto.com Arena. Luka Doncic claimed to know why Los Angeles won.
This was a tough game for New York to end up on the losing side of. The Knicks led by double digits for big chunks of this ball game, after a strong 33-20 second quarter. The Lakers made their move in the fourth, rallying from behind to tie up the game and send it to the overtime period, which would go in their favor.
After the game was over, Doncic identified who won the game for Los Angeles. There could have been a couple of easy answers here, but the Slovenian superstar opted to look elsewhere.
Did Doncic himself win the game for the Lakers? Despite a performance that featured 32 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds, and four steals, that was not the answer provided.
Was it LeBron James who catapulted Los Angeles to the victory? James had a monster game of his own, with 31 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, and one block. However, that was not the response offered by Luka either.
Instead, Doncic told Dave McMenamin this: "Gabe [Vincent] won us the game."
Vincent's night does not look as impressive as the other two. The Lakers guard notched 12 points off the bench for Los Angeles. However, it was the timeliness of those buckets that really mattered.
The 12 points for Vincent consisted of shooting 4-of-4 from 3-point land. Some of those triples came when the Lakers really needed them, aiding the comeback efforts in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks got a great performance out of Jalen Brunson in this one, who dropped 39 points and 10 assists. A slightly premature exit for Brunson and a resilient Lakers team was ultimately too much for New York to overcome.
Related: Knicks' Jalen Brunson Makes Franchise History in Lakers Matchup
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This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 6:18 AM.