3 biggest comebacks in Los Angeles Lakers history
LeBron James has once again defied all logic. On Feb. 28, the Los Angeles Lakers were down 98-77 with 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers and then LeBron James happened. He scored or assisted on 30 of the Lakers' next 39 points and scored 19 points shooting 5-for-8 from 3 in the fourth quarter. The Lakers ended up winning 116-112 and completing the largest fourth-quarter comeback of LeBron's career.
This 21-point comeback may be the largest fourth-quarter comeback of LeBron's career, but it is only the 11th-best comeback in Lakers history. The Lakers, being one of, if not the most storied franchise in the history of the game, unsurprisingly have some outlandish comeback victories.
Here is a list of the largest comeback victories in Lakers history.
3. 28-point comeback against the Golden State Warriors
On April 20, 1999, the Lakers were facing off against the Golden State Warriors in Oracle Arena late in the season. Keep in mind, that this was during the 50-game lockout season, so every game was valuable. At this point, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were trying to break through and win their first championship while the Warriors were trying to sneak into the playoffs.
After the first quarter of this game, the score was 32-10 in favor of the Warriors. Kobe Brant had scored zero points, Shaq had scored four points, and the Warriors had four players score six or more points in the quarter. Then five minutes into the second quarter, the Warriors had won the quarter 15-9, putting them up 47-19, 28 points, and forcing the Lakers to take a timeout.
After this point, the Lakers went on a 14-2 run to close the half, with the score being 49-33 and cutting the deficit to 16. Remember, a 16-point lead at halftime in 1999 was much harder to overcome than it is today due to the minimal 3-point shooting.
Even in the third quarter, the Lakers couldn't cut into the lead, being outscored 24-20 and were down 20 going into the fourth quarter. Then something snapped for the Lakers as they won the fourth quarter 37-17 and sent the game to overtime.
This would not have been possible without Glen Rice scoring 10 points and of course, Kobe Bryant scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter and the game tying tip-in to send it to overtime.
In the overtime, the Lakers would win it 16-12, led by Robert Horry's seven points as the Lakers completed the 28-point comeback, and their third largest in franchise history.