Lakers-Suns Final Score: LA Pulls Away Late From Phoenix Team Sitting Stars
Yesterday, the Phoenix Suns signaled far ahead of game time that they were throwing in the towel against your Los Angeles Lakers, once again depriving the world of a Kevin Durant-LeBron James head-to-head matchup in the interest of letting the injury-prone Durant, who gets hurt even more than James, rest up. These two generational talents have not faced off against each other since the Christmas Day game in 2018 when James injured his groin and had to miss months of action.
Naturally, a mostly-healthy Los Angeles club won on Friday night against the Suns' JV team, although things were much, much closer through three quarters than fans might have hoped.
With Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton and T.J. Warren all sitting, the Suns' remaining role players proved their mettle with a tough first half of basketball. Phoenix won the first quarter, 34-30, thanks to a balanced offensive attack from all over the hardwood.
Phoenix even led the Lakers by seven points in the first half's last minute, until two triples shrank their advantage to just 62-61 at the break. Los Angeles shot fairly well from outside in the opening half (10-of-18 from deep), but often struggled to defend the young and springy Suns reserves. Reserve shooting guard Malik Beasley, who has been relatively quiet since being moved to the bench in favor of Austin Reaves, enjoyed a big second quarter, scoring 11 points in the frame.
Perhaps most troublingly, James and Davis were non-entities in the game's first half. Considering that they looked decent in LA's last game against the Clippers, it's a bit concerning that, with a day off in between games and playing against none of the Suns' top four players, James and Davis couldn't mount a stronger charge.
The Lakers' hot shooting continued into the third quarter. Troy Brown Jr. got into the fun with this slick corner take:
The bout was actually tied, 96-96, near the top of the fourth quarter, before LA went on a 13-2 run (which at one point included 11 straight points) to create some separation.
Although Darvin Ham had to play his best players down the home stretch to ensure they won (i.e. instead of resting them), having his new starting unit get some actual meaningful in-game minutes on the floor together wasn't the worst thing in the world. This LeBron James-to-D'Angelo Russell dish from the baseline was a particular highlight:
The Suns also lost a pair of important reserves to injuries during the game. Center Bismack Biyombo knocked knees with Anthony Davis and had to be helped off the floor with an injured right knee, and point guard Cameron Payne hurt his back during a fall.
Ultimately, LA won by double digits, 121-107, to improve its record to 42-39 on the season. This feat is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Los Angeles started the season by going a dismal 2-10.
Starting Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell, who wasn't even guaranteed to play last night as he deals with a sore left foot, scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor (including a team-best 6-of-9 three-point shooting), grabbed three rebounds and dished out three assists (to be fair, he turned the ball over six times too, but he was still a massive net positive for the game).
Ultimately, six Lakers scored in double digits, with three notching 20+ points on the evening (Reaves had 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting, Beasley had 21 on 7-of-14 shooting).
Torrey Craig, playing small ball power forward in lieu of KD, was the Suns' top scorer with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field (2-of-5 from deep).
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