LOS ANGELES -- LeBron James' and Luka Doncic's 30-point double-doubles might have jumped off the box score after the Los Angeles Lakers' 113-109 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Thursday, but L.A.'s stars said the victory belonged to their supporting cast.
"I think Gabe [Vincent] won the game with those three 3s in the fourth quarter," Doncic said of the team's backup point guard.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 10 in the fourth quarter -- only the second time during their eight-game winning streak they were down double-digits to an opponent -- when Vincent caught fire.
Vincent, who missed nearly all of last season with a knee injury, hit his first 3 of the fourth to cut the Knicks' lead to five with 5:59 remaining. His next 3, with 2:55 left, cut L.A.'s deficit to one. His third, with 1:21 to go, gave the Lakers a 99-96 advantage, the first time they were up since the second quarter.
"It's part of why I'm here," Vincent said. "Part of why I'm here is what I've done at those moments late in the season. So just try and take the experience I've had and built and just try to continue to keep up with winning games."
The Lakers signed Vincent to a three-year contract in the summer of 2023 when he was coming off an NBA Finals run with the Miami Heat. While injuries derailed the start to his Laker tenure, he's been a valuable performer to the Lakers' turnaround this season on the defensive end -- ranking No. 1 in defensive efficiency in the league since Jan. 30.
Doncic finished with 32 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds and 4 steals and scored L.A.'s first five points in overtime. James had 31 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and played 44 of 53 minutes at 40 years old.
But it was Vincent's 12 points, rookie Dalton Knecht's 11 points, backup center Trey Jemison III's seven points and four rebounds and starting center Jaxson Hayes' eight points, five rebounds, two blocks and two clutch free throws to give L.A. a two-point lead with less than a minute left in overtime that received the most praise in the locker room.
"There's no such thing as non-key players on this team," James said. "Everybody is key. And everybody who steps on the floor has a role and they go in and match that. And I thought our bench gave us a great lift once again and Gabe was -- I'll single him out -- he was spectacular. His play both on the defensive end and obviously his shooting, we needed it."
L.A. (40-21) begins a four-game road trip Saturday against the defending champs and franchise rival Boston Celtics.
Austin Reaves, who returned from a two-game absence from a right hamstring injury and struggled with a 2-for-13 shooting night, said that the nature of the win speaks volumes to what kind of team the Lakers are becoming.
"We probably shouldn't have won that game," Reaves said. "It's special to not play the way you want to and still come out and win."
Knicks owner James Dolan seeks clearer accounting of NBA's finances
In a continuation of criticism of the league office over the better part of two years, New York Knicks owner James Dolan called for a resolution to be voted on at this month's NBA board of governors meetings that asks for clearer accounting of the league's finances, according to a letter received this week by the league office and the board of governors.
Dolan, who said ahead of the September meeting that he wouldn't be voting on the 2024-25 budget, nor the election of a new chair of the board of governors, laid out in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN, why he believes the NBA needs to add a resolution to its agenda for this month's meeting as part of an ongoing attempt to seek out "increased financial transparency and operating efficiency."
The proposed resolution would begin with the 2025-26 NBA fiscal year and would ask the league to "adopt a zero-based method of budgeting operating costs, headcount, and capital expenditures for all League and Affiliate League operations" and "adopt a process to present and distribute the League's annual proposed budgets inclusive of all underlying account detail summarized by department and type of expense, headcount, and fully allocated costs against each League revenue stream."
In the letter, which was co-signed by both Dolan and the team's alternate governor, Madison Square Garden chief operating officer Jamaal Lesane, the Knicks detailed how the league's operating budget rose nearly 8% from the year before, and pointed out specific increases in a variety of areas, as well as an increase in "League office headcount" by more than 800 people.
"Despite the League's swelling costs and headcount, the budget materials provided by the League during its annual September budget review are limited in scope," the letter said. "Accordingly, to improve the League's financial transparency and operating efficiency, the Knicks propose that the League adopts a zero-based method of budgeting operating costs, capital expenditures, and headcount for all League operations and initiatives (including Affiliate Leagues, such as the Basketball Africa League, WNBA, and G League).
The letter went on to ask for further underlying details -- "summarized by department and type of expense-including headcount, capital expenditures, and fully-loaded budgeted costs with respect to the League and each of its subsidiaries and Affiliate Leagues" -- and for all costs and head counts related to both the league's upcoming new national media deals, which kick in next season, and "any contemplated NBA Europe league operations."
The Knicks also asked for the 2025-26 budget to be presented in July at the league's annual Las Vegas meeting so that it could be ratified in September when the owners convene again before the start of the season.
Dolan and the Knicks have repeatedly questioned the league office on a variety of topics dating back multiple years. The team sued the Toronto Raptors in August 2023 over the alleged theft of thousands of files, with an arbitration hearing scheduled for the week of July 21 to resolve it. That same summer, Dolan resigned from the advisory/finance and media committees, and wrote in a memo obtained by ESPN that "given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion."
Last year, he sent another letter criticizing the league for its new television deal, which he said would render regional sports networks as "unviable" moving forward.
"The NBA has made the move to an NFL model -- deemphasizing and depowering the local market," Dolan wrote in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN. "Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year's jersey will be. Don't worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.
"Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal."
On Monday, Sphere Entertainment said in an earnings release that it could look at entering MSG Networks, which broadcasts Knicks and New York Rangers games, into bankruptcy protection if it's unable to work out a deal to refinance its debt. That announcement came shortly after the company reached an agreement with Altice to get the networks back onto one of the biggest cable providers in the country, and one that serves much of the tri-state area.
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