An early onslaught by the Lakers and a brilliant close from LeBron James saw the Lakers bounce back with a 116-104 victory over the Nets.
LeBron James tied his career high for 3-pointers with nine as part of his 40-point performance. He finished 13-17 from the field and 9-10 from the 3-point line.
Anthony Davis added 24 points and 14 rebounds while Rui Hachimura had 20 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. D’Angelo Russell had 18 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals. Austin Reaves chipped in 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists and one steal.
Both turnovers (19) and bench scoring plagued the Lakers. Prior to garbage time, the Lakers had just two bench points, those coming from Gabe Vincent in his return from injury.
The Lakers could not have asked for a better start, scoring the first 15 points of the game and forcing a pair of early Nets timeouts. Every Lakers starter sans D’Lo scored in the run, though the point guard had a pair of assists.
By the time they scored their first basket at the 5:40 mark, the Lakers led 17-2. AD responded with seven straight points as the lead reached 24-4.
The Lakers downshifted the remainder of the quarter but still kept their sizeable lead to close the quarter, heading into the second up 31-11. The 11 points were the fewest allowed in a quarter this season.
As they’ve been prone to do this season, the Lakers let their foot off the gas. Brooklyn hit 101 of its first 12 shots of the second period and a lead that was as high as 24 points was halved to 12.
The Lakers did respond and did not allow the lead to dip any lower than that. A huge lob from LeBron to AD late in the second quarter restored the margin back to 17 points.
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