The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night, looking to build off their comeback win against the Miami Heat.
These two teams made a trade a few weeks ago, swapping D’Angelo Russell for Dorian Finney-Smith. The latter was out of this game for personal reasons while the former was surely looking to go at his former team. Anthony Davis was also a late scratch for the Lakers due to plantar fasciitis.
In the end though, it was the Lakers that came out on top in a close one, beating the Nets 102-101.
Jaxson Hayes started in Davis’ place and got the scoring started on a dunk on a feed from Austin Reaves. Rui Hachimura then threw down a thunderous dunk of his own to get the crowd going.
With Davis out though, the Lakers’ defense predictably struggled early, allowing the Nets to take the early advantage until Max Christie tied the game at 15 with a triple.
Both offense slowed down significantly from there until Russell entered and made a layup on his first shot against his former team. LeBron James then ended the first quarter with back-to-back 3s to give L.A. a 24-23 lead.
Reaves got going offensively to begin the second as the Lakers started to build a lead, getting it up to double digits for the first time. Both teams were extremely sloppy to end the first half, but the Lakers were still went into the locker room with a 51-45 lead.
The Lakers came out flat to start the third quarter as the Nets quickly cut their deficit to one, forcing a timeout by JJ Redick.
-Gabe Vincent helped get the Lakers back on track with five straight points although other than that neither offense was able to get much going as the game stayed sloppy. After an acrobatic finish by James to end the third, L.A. took a 72-68 lead into the fourth.
The Nets started to heat up from deep to begin the final quarter, allowing them to regain the lead momentarily before James responded with a triple of his own. The flood gates finally opened from there offensively as both teams were exchanging 3s back and forth.
Reaves continued his big night with bucket after bucket as the Lakers finally started to gain some separation. His previous career-high of 35 points was surpassed with around four minutes to go and he finished with 38.
The Nets continued to fight though and got within one in the final minute. Russell got a great look as time expired but missed, securing the win for the Lakers.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will return to the court on Sunday night when they take on the L.A. Clippers in the team’s first game at Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
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