Bonny James is back with the South Bay Lakers of the G League as the Los Angeles Lakers begin a six-game road trip facing the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. And he put on a show for the home fans on Friday night.
Late in the third quarter of South Bay’s game versus the Rip City remix, James brought the ball up the court, dribbled around a screen by Christian Koloko and drove down the lane for a thunderous dunk over Sterling Manley that set up for a great poster would make sure.
That tied the game at 80-80 and James celebrated his highlight play with his teammates when Rip City called a timeout. Inspired by the poster Dunk, South Bay finished the third quarter on a 9-4 run and stayed in front for almost the entire fourth en route to a 122-110 victory.
James finished with 31 points and shot 5-of-11 on 3-pointers to lead South Bay to its second win of the season. At 2-7, the G League Lakers are in for second place in the Western Conference. James played his first game with the team since December 21.
Bonny James Post Game Interview after dropping a career high 31 points
He sounds just like his dad LeBron -man, it’s so scary pic.twitter.com/rsshsn7f9c
– Lakeshow Highlights (@lsh_lakeshow) January 25, 2025
Quincy Olivari added 20 and seven rebounds off the bench, while Koloko scored 16 with 10 rebounds. Sir’jabari Rice scored 15, joined by Trey Jemison III and Jordan Goodwin with 14 points each.
“Just trying to play for me and my teammates, everything I try to do,” James said in a post-game interview. “It became a poster dunk that empowered the entire team and it went well.”
For Rip City, Alex Reese scored a game-high 32 points with seven rebounds, followed by Manley’s 15 points. Henri Drell, Cameron Tyson and Tyrell Roberts each added 14 points for the remix, which increased their record to 4-5.
With the NBA Lakers on the road, James likely won’t rejoin the team until Feb. 4 when it visits the Los Angeles Clippers.