It was a game of two halves at Moda Center as the Los Angeles Lakers overturned a 25-point deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.
When the Lakers went in trailing by 25 at the half, they had just experienced the wrong side of the joint second-biggest scoring margin in one quarter since the NBA added the three-point arc in 1979.
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Portland outscored the visitors 45-13 in the second quarter, but LeBron James and his team-mates would not lie down.
The Lakers came back to register 75 points in the second half, while only allowing 41, turning around the 25-point deficit to win by nine.
2017 playoffs: Cavs trail by 25 at half at Indiana, rally to win
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) January 23, 2023
Tonight: @Lakers trail by 25 at half at Portland, rally to win
LeBron James is the only player in NBA history to come back from a 25+ point halftime deficit to win on the road twice in his career (reg & post).
"I guess it's only one or two ways, you can either go out and you can lay down and get ready for the next game or you can see what happens in the third quarter, make a game of it," James said after the victory.
"And for us as competitors, and our team and our makeup this year, we're not a lay-down team. That's just not the makeup of our club."
James scored 37 with 11 rebounds as he closed in further on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record, while Thomas Bryant added 31 with 14 rebounds as the Lakers produced their second-biggest half-time deficit comeback win in franchise history.
"They jumped on us and knocked us down,” James added. "Thank God for the standing eight count."