7,825 fans gathered to Staples Center to watch the first Los Angeles Lakers playoff home game since 2013. The defending NBA champions did not disappoint their faithful as they won Game 3 of first round series against the Phoenix Suns to take the lead in the series 2-1.
Lakers star LeBron James was engaged with the fans which was a pleasant sight to head coach Frank Vogel. “Just shows how much we miss normalcy,” he said. “We played the whole postseason in the bubble last year, played most of this season without any fans or just a few fans and we’re still not there yet.
“But he’s a showman, he’s a performer. He loves performing in front of these great Lakers fans. to have our first playoff game in front of these fans was amazing. We don’t have the capacity that we want yet, but our fans tonight were super loud. Kudos to those guys. They really gave us energy throughout the game and in particular what you are talking about with LeBron putting on a show for these guys.”
