Šarić’s career night leads Sixers to victory over the Lakers

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By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly Staff 

Day two of the weekend trip to the Staples Center ended in victory, as the Sixers defeated the Lakers, 118-116 to snap their four game losing skid.

The game was back and forth for the most part, as the Sixers led in various points of the game with the Lakers coming back to tie the ballgame up. The Lakers used a big end of the fourth quarter to give Philly a scare late in the game, but it was Dario Saric's career night that led the Sixers to a big win on the West Coast.

Saric was by far the player of the game for the Sixers, scoring a career-high 29 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals, and a block. Saric was also 3-of-7 from three. Saric has scored 10 or more points in 16-straight games, the most for an NBA rookie this season. He also became the second rookie this season to have 10 20-point games. The other, you ask? Well, that would be Joel Embiid. Speaking of Jo-Jo, Saric got one pretty big endorsement for Rookie of the Year.

Jahlil Okafor also played significant minutes, scoring 23 points, bringing down four boards, two assists, a steal, and a block. Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot played great for the Sixers in only his third start of the season. TLC had 18 points, three rebounds, and three assists.

Richaun Holmes played a vital 22 minutes for the Sixers off the bench. He scored 10 points, had five rebounds, two steals, and a block.

Head Coach Brett Brown used his bench players to his team's advantage with the knee soreness injury to Robert Covington.

Brown was proud of the defense that his team showed against a young, but talented Los Angeles Lakers basketball team.

"I think just playing better defense, I think really in stretches when you felt like the game was in the balance, I felt like we came up with the necessary stops. I felt like we came up with decent stops at really important times in the fourth period to come away with a win."

The Lakers tried to go on a quick run to end the game and try to come away with a big win in front of their home fans. Julius Randle, who was a key player in the Lakers' win vs. Philadelphia back in December, had 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks. Ivica Zubac, nicknamed "Zu-block" lived up to his name with four blocks for the Lakers. He also reeled in 10 points and six rebounds. D'Angelo Russell had 11 points, seven assists, and four rebounds.

Perhaps the biggest key to the game for the Lakers was the stellar play from Jordan Clarkson off the bench. The guard had 30 points, six rebounds, and eight assists in 34 minutes of play.

A final shot from Julius Randle in the closing seconds was off the mark and the Sixers came out of the Staples Center with a win. The Sixers will have their work cut out for them tomorrow night, when they head to the Oracle in Oakland to take on the NBA's best Warriors, who have lost three straight games.

If there is any team to knock of the already-struggling Warriors, it's the Sixers, who are used to going in and playing theur hearts out against tough teams.

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