James has 33, Lakers beat Nets 106-96 in Davis’ return

New York, Jan. 26 (AP):  Anthony Davis’ knee looked fine leaping high to slam down a lob pass from LeBron James on the game’s first possession.

And he looked healthy jumping into his teammate in celebration after James’ two steals and dunks in the fourth quarter punctuated his performance.

 “I feel ready,” Davis said

James scored 33 points and the Los Angeles Lakers welcomed Davis back with a 106-96 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night.

Davis had eight points in 25 minutes after missing 17 games with a sprained left knee and the Lakers got good nights off the bench from Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony.

James added seven rebounds and six assists, highlighting his night with steals and dunks about 15 seconds apart midway through the fourth quarter in front of a roaring road crowd that didn’t have most of its own stars to cheer.

Davis ran onto the court during the ensuing timeout and jumped into James, showing no fear while knocking his 6-foot-8, 250-pound teammate backward.

 “Can’t think about it. When I’m on the floor I try not to think about it,” Davis said. “I was what, a month, five weeks, doing a lot of weightlifting. So I hit him, he kind of like fell over. I was more worried for him than my knee.”

Monk scored 22 points, hitting six 3-pointers, and Anthony added 13.

James Harden had 33 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in an impressive follow-up to his strong game in Los Angeles when the Nets won there on Christmas. But with Kevin Durant still out with a sprained left knee ligament and the unvaccinated Kyrie Irving unavailable again now that the Nets are back from their four-game road trip, the Nets couldn’t match the Lakers on one of their good nights in an uneven season.

Afterward, Harden was asked about a Bleacher Report story detailing reasons that he is frustrated in Brooklyn.

 “Listen, I don’t know about any reports,” Harden said. “Of course I’m frustrated because we’re not healthy, there’s a lot of inconsistency for whatever reason. Injuries, COVID, whatever you want to call it, so yeah, it is frustrating. I think everyone in this organization is frustrated because we are better than our record is and we should be on the way up. So that’s all it is.”

Davis looked in sync right away, throwing down a lob pass from James on the first possession of the game. He also blocked three shots in the first quarter, which ended with the Lakers leading 33-25 on James’ basket as time expired.

“Obviously right away you see what he’s capable of,” James said. “We draw a play right to start the game, I was able to turn the corner and threw a late lob that he was still able to throw home. So very exciting to have him back.”