When the Los Angeles Lakers came back from a late seven-point deficit to defeat the Denver Nuggets in overtime on Saturday, their main heroes were Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic. Reaves scored nine of their last 20 points in the fourth quarter, which included his intentionally missed free throw, which he turned into the basket that forced overtime. Doncic scored six straight points late in the fourth quarter, and he then hit the game-winning jumper just before time expired in overtime.
But this victory was a team effort. LeBron James’ stat line was modest: 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting, six rebounds, five assists, two steals and five turnovers. But with about a minute left, he made one of the most important plays of the game by going after a defensive rebound and diving on the floor to recover it.
It resulted in a jump ball between him and Jamal Murray. While James lost the jump ball, teammate Marcus Smart had a steal and a fast-break layup moments later to put the Lakers ahead.
41-YEAR OLD LEBRON JAMES DIVES FOR THE BALL IN THE CLUTCH pic.twitter.com/bxcwEO3yPK
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) March 15, 2026
After L.A.’s 127-125 win in overtime, coach JJ Redick seemed to joke a little about how he had never seen James legitimately dive for a loose ball before.
“I told him after the game — I said in 23 years of watching you play in the NBA and the three years I watched you play in high school, I never saw you make a full-out extension dive like that and he said, ‘You’re right. I’d never done that.’ It’s awesome. I know he’ll feel that tomorrow. That’s a winning play.”
Lately, James has done a good job of taking a step back and accepting the reality that being the third scoring option on the Lakers is what’s best for them. On the season, he’s averaging 21.3 points on 50.5% shooting, 5.7 rebounds and seven assists a game.
He hasn’t reached the 30-point mark since Jan. 13, and he’s averaging a career low 15.8 field-goal attempts per game. But given how much mileage he has on him, and given how well Doncic and Reaves are playing, James clearly needs to play a different role than he has for his entire basketball career, and it looks like he’s finding his niche within that changed role.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick on LeBron James diving for loose ball in crunch time
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