LeBron James and Anthony Davis showed why they're two of the top five players in the NBA when it mattered most Tuesday.
With Phoenix erasing a 15-point deficit, the defending NBA champions were in danger of falling behind 2-0 going back to Los Angeles.
Then James and Davis delivered.
Scoring a combined 57 points, the All-Star duo made key plays down the stretch in the Lakers 109-102 Game 2 win before a sellout crowd of 11,919 amid COVID-19 restrictions at Phoenix Suns Arena to knot the best-of-7 series at 1-1.
Davis scored a game-high 34 while James added 23 as the seventh-seeded Lakers responded to Sunday's Game 1 loss to upend the second-seeded Suns.
"Those guys made unreal shots," Suns coach Monty Williams said. "LeBron and AD made big plays. We had our chances."
Game 3 is Thursday in Los Angeles.
"We just have to move on to the next game," said Suns All-Star Devin Booker, who scored a team-high 31 points. "It's a tough one tonight. We fought all the way through. We just came up short at the end."
Chris Paul gave it a go after suffering a shoulder injury in Sunday's Game 1 win, but once again struggled in finishing with just six points in 23 minutes.
"I took him out," Williams said. "It was all me. Just looking at him holding his arm the way that he was holding it, I just couldn't watch him run like that. He was trying to make plays, he battled. He's a warrior, we all know that, and I just made a decision to take him out."
Paul played just six minutes and 51 seconds in the second half with just 2:38 coming in the fourth. The 11-time All-Star didn't play the final seven minutes of the game.
"We'll get him back," Suns backup point guard Cameron Payne said. "It was tough, but you know, we've got next man mentality so everybody got to be ready."
Despite Paul's ineffectiveness and eventual absence, the Suns led 90-89 midway through the fourth when Davis and James took over.
With the Lakers up one, Davis made a weakside block on Deandre Ayton, who had the much shorter Alex Caruso defending him in the post with 3:15 left.
Ayton had passed up a shot earlier in the shot clock with Caruso on him. By the time he got it back, Davis rejected his shot. Ayton only missed two shots all game (11-o.
"I didn't see Anthony," Ayton said. "All I could see was the shot clock going down at the other end of the basket and I was like, I've got to get this up and he got me from behind."
On the ensuing possession, James hit a jumper to make the difference three, 95-92.
Then after Booker missed a jumper, Davis made a 3 to put the Lakers up 98-92 with 2:15 left.
James put the final touches on the Lakers win with a 3 to extend their lead to 103-94 with 49.8 seconds left.
"That's what they do," said Lakers guard Dennis Schroder, who scored 24 points himself, about Davis and James.
Davis attempted 21 free throws, making 18, grabbed 10 rebounds and added seven assists in response to his 13-point effort in Sunday's Game 1.
"Get him the ball early, often and always," James said about Davis. "It's that simple. He responds to games like Game 1. He's not a guy who talks about it, he's about it."
Along with Booker's 31, Ayton went for 22 points on 11-of-13 shooting and 10 rebounds while Payne added 19 points and a team-high seven assists.
The Suns trailed, 63-48, early in the third as the Lakers opened the second half on a 10-1 run, but Phoenix trimmed the lead down to seven going into the fourth as Cam Johnson hit back-to-back 3s to close the quarter.
Riding momentum, Phoenix came all the way back to take the lead, 88-86, on an Ayton dunk with 6:14 left.
"We were doing it collectively, doing it together like we've been doing all year," Suns forward Jae Crowder said. "We do have a lot of players in here who have a lot of pride and feel like they can get it done, but we've got to continue to do it collectively. I think that got us back in the game once we started to play with each other on both ends of the court and gained momentum."
A 3 by Marc Gasol put the Lakers back up one, but Ayton once again answered with a dunk to put Phoenix back on top.
However, the Suns didn't have another field goal for the game's final 4:04 after Payne's drive sliced the Lakers' lead to one, 93-92.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiqgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5hemNlbnRyYWwuY29tL3N0b3J5L3Nwb3J0cy9uYmEvc3Vucy8yMDIxLzA1LzI1L2FudGhvbnktZGF2aXMtbGVicm9uLWphbWVzLWRlbGl2ZXItbGVhZGluZy1sb3MtYW5nZWxlcy1sYWtlcnMtcGFzdC1waG9lbml4LXN1bnMtZXZlbi1wbGF5b2ZmLXNlcmllcy83NDQzMTIzMDAyL9IBAA?oc=5
2021-05-26 05:15:45Z
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