LeBron James equalled his season-high score of 35 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 107-95 in the NBA in-season tournament.
James also registered nine assists for the Lakers, who lead their group with three wins from three games.
Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs lost 129-120 to the Sacramento Kings and, having lost all three group games so far, cannot make the knockout stage. De’Aaron Fox scored a season-high 43 points for the Kings.
Each team play four games in their group, and games in the in-season tournament count towards a team’s 82-game regular-season schedule.
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Spurs’ defeat was their seventh in a row overall – but 19-year-old French sensation Wembanyama, who scored 27 points against the Kings, believes they will recover.
Charlotte Hornets’ Miles Bridges played his first NBA game since April 2022 as they were defeated 130-99 by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Bridges missed the whole of the 2022-23 season, having not signed an NBA contract after being arrested and charged over a domestic violence incident, to which he subsequently entered a ‘no contest’ plea – where a defendant does not admit guilt, but accepts punishment as if they had.
Bridges came off the bench to score 17 points in 33 minutes for the Hornets in defeat.
