As the Los Angeles Lakers look to defend their title in the Emirates Cup, they continued group play on Tuesday night, hosting the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs in their first game so were looking to remain undefeated in group play. They did exactly that, beating the Jazz, 124-118, to earn their sixth straight win overall and improve their record to 10-4.
With Rui Hachimura missing a third straight game, Dalton Knecht got another start and kicked off the scoring for the Lakers with a corner triple. He then made another one from the same extra spot to give his team an early 10-4 lead.
It wasn’t long before the Lakers took their first double digit lead at 18-8 after buckets inside by Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Knecht. Overall, it was a dominant defensive first quarter for the Lakers, who took a 34-22 lead into the second after Gabe Vincent beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer.
Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson led a Jazz run to begin the second, quickly getting their deficit back down to six. Knecht continued his strong half with a pair of dunks though, including one on an alley-oop from Reaves.
The Lakers regained control from there as James led a run to end the half, taking a 57-44 lead into the locker room.
After a relatively quiet scoring first half, LeBron got going in the third quarter with a three-point play and then a triple. He then had a dunk top put L.A. up 75-56, forcing a Jazz timeout.
Knecht had another insane stretch to end the third quarter, making four triples in a row and then getting fouled on his fifth attempt. His next attempt also went in as he was at a career-high 33 points through three quarters with the Lakers leading comfortably, 97-75. His play had the entire Crypto.com Arena on their feet as all of his teammates were looking to find him for triples.
Knecht made one more 3-pointer for good measure to begin the fourth and his ridiculous stretch seemed to put the game out of reach, although the Jazz were actually able to cut their deficit to 16, forcing a timeout by Redick.
Given the point differential aspect of the Emirates NBA Cup, the hope was for a blowout to ensure L.A. would clinch all tiebreakers. The Jazz kept fighting though and got their deficit to seven at one point.
Ultimately though, the Lakers were never in danger and were able to close out the win.
Knecht would up finishing with a career-high 37 points on 12-of-16 shooting and 9-for-12 from 3 to go along with five rebounds and a steal.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers have two difficult home matchups to finish out the week, hosting the Orland Magic on Thursday and then the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.
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