Lakers News: Sharpshooting LA Demolishes Atlanta, 130-114
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Tonight, despite the absence of four major rotation players (including two of the team's three leading scorers), your Los Angeles Lakers managed to complete their regular season series sweep of the Atlanta Hawks in a home blowout, 130-114. A trio of double-doubles from three of LA's best healthy players certainly helped the effort.
That said, the Lakers did almost cough up a massive first-half advantage, until LeBron James and some spicy three-point shooting helped create enough separation in the fourth quarter to sew up the ultimate W. The victory marked LA's fourth straight, and the team's fifth in its last six contests.
Without Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, Austin Reaves, or Troy Brown Jr., head coach Darvin Ham trotted out a starting lineup of Dennis Schröder, Patrick Beverley, Juan Toscano-Anderson, James and Thomas Bryant.
Coming off his best-ever scoring night as a Laker Wednesday, Dennis Schröder kept the offensive aggression going tonight, as he led the Lakers with nine points in a high-scoring first quarter. LA ultimately took the lead over Atlanta, 37-28.
Hawks All-Star point guard (and possibly intriguing Lakers trade candidate?) Trae Young started out shooting just 1-of-8 from the floor, and would finish the first half shooting a dismal 3-for-10 overall (don't worry, Ice Trae fans: he eventually finished with 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting, but more on that in a second).
James got cooking early, showing off this nifty spin move in faking out Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu to nab an easy layup.
Rookie Lakers shooting guard Max Christie played meaningful minutes tonight, and made the most of them, flashing some of his solid two-way athleticism in recording his first-ever dunk:
All told, the Lakers got off to an absolutely scorching first half, and led 70-49 at the break. Things would exactly be smooth sailing in the second half, however. Kendrick Nunn of all people led the way for LA at the break, with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Schröder chipped in 12, Westbrook had 11 points and seven boards, James was a dime shy of double-double territory with 10 points and nine assists, and Bryant had 10 points.
Three of the slickest of Bryant's 10 points came off this tasty passing sequence:
Trae Young got hot (as he is wont to do) in the third quarter, at one point shooting 5-of-6 from the floor. A 17-8 Hawks run cut the Lakers' lead to within 14 points midway through the frame, where it hovered for much of the third. In some happier Lakers news, Thomas Bryant achieved yet another double-double in the period:
The Hawks later cut the Lakers' lead down to as little as 10 points, before back-to-back treys from (checking notes) Max Christie and Kendrick Nunn helped the Lakers take a 16-point lead, 98-82, heading into the game's final frame.
Atlanta cut the lead back down to 10 quickly at the start of the fourth quarter, and the tension at Crypto.com Arena was palpable.
Russell Westbrook... made his second triple of the night (on 50% shooting from deep) to help LA get some separation and get the lead back up to 14.
LeBron James, though, emerged as the star of the show late, putting his head down and driving deep into the paint to get pretty much whatever he wanted against a Hawks interior defense that was sorely missing starting center Clint Capela.
James put the finishing touches on a terrific game midway through the fourth quarter with two back-to-back hammers.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Head coach Darvin Ham then quickly subbed out his best healthy player with the game more or less looking wrapped up. LA held on to win, 130-114.
Despite playing just 32:47, James led the Lakers in scoring with 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe. He also dished out 10 assists, pulled down seven rebounds, and registered a +12 plus-minus. It wasn't quite 47 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, but we'll take it.
Kendrick Nunn had his best game of the season, and thus his best-ever game as a Laker. Nunn scored 23 points on a hyper-efficient 9-of-16 shooting from the floor (3-of-7 from deep).
Schröder finished with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor (including 5-of-8 shooting from deep), two rebounds and an assist. Westbrook had 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor (thanks to a more modest 2-of-4 shooting from three-point land), 11 rebounds, nine assists, two steals and a block.
Thomas Bryant got yet another double-double, his seventh in his last 11 games since taking over for Anthony Davis. Not too shabby for a guy on a veteran's minimum contract. TB scored 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and grabbing 13 rebounds.
Short on healthy bodies from its standard rotation, LA opted to go 10 deep tonight, and the results were actually... surprisingly encouraging. Rookie shooting guard Max Christie had an especially solid two-way turn, playing solid defense and enjoying an efficient, if modest, scoring night while playing meaningful minutes. In 16:05, he shot 3-of-5 from the floor (2-of-2 from long range) for a total of eight points. Did Nunn turn a corner, or was this just something of an anomalous throwback Heat-era Nunn game?
The Lakers seemed to thrive in transition and struggle a bit more to generate offense in half-court sets, and accordingly got a big edge in fast break points on the night, 26-12. LA also far-outpaced Atlanta when it came to points in the paint, 66-50. The Lakers' bench scored 40+ points for the second straight game, notching a whopping 56 (41 of those points of course came from Brodie and Nunn) to Atlanta's 24.
One of the wildest statistical advantages LA enjoyed was in the team's surprisingly voluminous three-point shooting compared to the Hawks'. LA shot 16-of-35 from long range (45.7%), a huge edge over the Hawks' 9-of-31 night (29%).
Today also marked the Lakers debut of brand-new signing Sterling Brown. He took (and missed) just one shot attempt in a 3:24 cameo.
