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Lakers Fall in Final Seconds of Back-and-Forth Battle

Down by one with 7.5 seconds remaining, the Lakers tried to get the ball to the hottest hands on the floor.

But Julius Randle was double-teamed on the inbounds pass, leaving the final possession to Isaiah Thomas.

Nicknamed the “King in the Fourth” for his heroics in the last quarter, Thomas was unable to add to his legacy this time around.

He caught the ball at the mid-court logo and drove left before trying to gain separation with a step-back. His high-arcing shot flew over the arms of two challenging defenders, but bounced off the rim. The Lakers couldn’t secure the rebound, resulting in a 92-91 loss to Miami.

“Isaiah got a clean look,” coach Luke Walton said. “Can’t complain about that. I think he was probably a little cold. He had been on the bench for a while. But if you get an open look for someone like IT at the end, you live with that.”

Thomas finished the night an uncharacteristic 1-of-9 from the field toward only five points. Randle, meanwhile, continued his ascension, making it a career-high four straight games with 20-plus points.

Randle bulldozed the Heat front court down low, leading the Lakers with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

He was flanked by Brook Lopez, who hit four 3-pointers on his way to 18 points. Meanwhile, Lonzo Ball shot similarly to Thomas (4-of-15), but provided in other ways with nine points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Yet it was Kyle Kuzma who provided the biggest shots of the Lakers’ night.

Trailing by seven with five minutes left, Kuzma — who had just four points at that moment — suddenly couldn’t miss.

He started with a reverse layup on the fast break, continued with a sweeping hook shot and finished with a spot-up 3-pointer when given way too much room to shoot.

This all fueled a 10-2 Lakers run, which gave them a 91-90 edge with just 1:23 remaining.

Neither team was able to strike for the next minute, but Goran Dragic still had one more bucket left in his 30-point night.

The Heat point guard got out in transition, lost Ball on a pick-and-roll, and finished over the outstretched arm of Lopez, as his go-ahead floater bounced off the rim and backboard before settling in the net.

The Lakers tried to respond right away, but called timeout when they couldn’t score immediately. With 7.5 seconds remaining, Thomas went to work but couldn’t scratch.

“I thought it was going in,” Thomas said. “It was just short. I got a good look and I got the separation that I wanted. It just fell short.”

So ended a see-saw tilt that featured 16 lead changes.

The Lakers actually outshot the Heat (37-33), which had one of its worst shooting nights of the season (38.3 percent).

But Walton’s goals for this game were to limit turnovers and control pace, and the Lakers (31-38) did neither.

They coughed up 20 giveaways — nine more than Miami — and allowed their visitors to grind down the tempo of the game.

“They were tougher than we were tonight, which was really frustrating,” Walton said. “I don’t want to lose, but I don’t mind losing when other teams make plays. We had moments of playing our brand of basketball and being physical and getting stops, but the ended up with 18 more shot attempts than we did.”

Notes
The Lakers had won 12 of their previous 13 home games before losing to Miami, which had lost nine straight on the road. … The Heat also had a 12-7 advantage in offensive rebounds… a crowd of 18,997 — including Showtime Lakers coach and current Heat President Pat Riley — sold out Staples Center.