Tales of two Christmas homecomings; Lakers need to clone LeBron

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – Kemba Walker provided the Christmas miracle for the New York Knicks with a triple-double to lead his hometown team to a 101-87 victory Saturday (Sunday, Manila time) over the decimated Atlanta Hawks.

Walker finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists as he became only the second player in Knicks franchise history to follow a 40-point game with a triple-double since Carmelo Anthony in 2012. Walker had a season-high 44 points Thursday (Friday, Manila time) in the Knicks’ loss to the Washington Wizards. 

It was Walker’s fourth strong game since his return to the rotation following a 10-game absence, nine of them being a healthy scratch. The Bronx native has regained his All-Star form, averaging 26 points, 8.3 rebounds and seven assists since his return. 

Walker’s all-game brilliance became the catalyst that brought out the holiday best from the rest of the team, especially Julius Randle. The Knicks’ All-Star forward snapped out from a shooting slump and drilled in a season-high six of nine triples on his way to a 25-point, 12-rebound and two-assist performance.

“It was amazing,” Walker said. “Those are the moments that you dream about. It’s kind of hard to put it into words, to be honest.”

It was the opposite Christmas homecoming for Russell Westbrook. 

The California-born point guard missed two strong drives to the hoop down the stretch as the Los Angeles Lakers came up short against the Brooklyn Nets, 122-115 — a dampener to LeBron James’ historic night. 

The 37-year-old James tied the late Kobe Bryant for the most number of Christmas game appearances with 16 and then broke his scoring record in the history of the Holiday games. James matched his season-high 39 points in 40 minutes, hiking his Christmas game’s scoring total to 422 points surpassing Bryant’s 395.

“That’s fantastic. At least I can say I was here for that,” acting Lakers coach David Fizdale said with a laugh.

James added nine rebounds, seven assists and three steals as he tried his best to help the Lakers erase a 23-point deficit in the second half.

“I don’t really care about the way I play if it comes in a loss,” James said.

The Lakers lost for the fifth straight game, with Fizdale now 0-4 as a fill-in coach for Frank Vogel, who entered health and safety protocols.

“I’m kicking myself in the head because he’s giving me incredible effort. I’m trying to figure out ways to get us over the hump with that effort. But I hate that getting wasted on losses,” Fizdale said. “It’s just spectacular. To watch it and to be part of it, even if those games are turning into Ls, I’ve never seen anything like this guy.”

“And we better sure be thanking our lucky stars for this guy. He has given us the most beautiful basketball over the last, however many, years. And he’s still giving it to us on Christmas day.”
James’ 3-pointer with 1:20 left, followed by a Malik Monk layup, tied the game at 115. 

Then it went downhill for the Lakers from there.

James Harden completed a triple-double with his 10th assist feeding Nic Claxton an alley-oop dunk over James for the deadlock-shattering three-point play.

Harden finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists while Patty Mills added a season-high 34 points and a Christmas Game record of eight triples.

Westbrook missed a dunk against Claxton with 26 seconds left that sealed the Lakers’ fate. The athletic point guard, who was brought in to form a Big 3 with James and Anthony Davis, has yet to find his groove with his hometown team.

His triple-double (13 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists) was negated by a horrible 4-for-20 shooting and a team-worst -23 plus-minus rating. 

Fizdale encouraged Westbrook to look beyond his missed drives and not fight pressure with pressure. 

“He gotta keep attacking. That’s who he is. He’s a rim-attacking finisher. And for whatever reason, he’s just missed them. A big part of the reason is he just wants it so bad. You can see it, as everybody can feel that he wants it so bad. I know it’s just hard for him if it doesn’t work out. And I know he cares like crazy. This is everything to him. And sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way,” Fizdale said. 

Christmas games have a long-held tradition of showcasing the shiniest gifts the NBA has to offer. But the surge of Omnicron, the new COVID-19 variant ravaging the league without discrimination, has robbed the Holiday games of some of their luster. 

Trae Young and eight more Hawks missed the playoffs rematch against the Knicks. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving also missed the Christmas game due to health and safety protocols, but the Nets somehow found a way to win.

The Lakers couldn’t do the same, with James’ on and off the court numbers telling a lot of their tragic situation. 

With James on the floor, the Lakers outscored the Nets by 11. During his eight minutes on the bench, the Nets blew them by 18.

Fizdale has yet to figure out a Lakers team with a collection of strangers when James is off the court.

“Clone him. We can clone him. Do you know any good scientists? Maybe we can duplicate him,” Fizdale said. “I don’t know. We just have to figure that out. When we have those gaps that he’s out of the game, how can we keep the momentum going offensively and defensively. So, we’ll keep looking at those stretches of the game, keep looking at ways to help our team.”

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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based sports website empiresportsmedia.com.