The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night in their final home game of 2023.
The Lakers were looking to get back on track after a tough loss to the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day, and they did exactly that by earning an easy 133-112 victory over the Hornets to improve to 17-15 on the season.
With Cam Reddish out due to a groin injury, Darvin Ham went with a huge starting lineup with Rui Hachimura taking his place, joining LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt and Taurean Prince.
Of course it was Hachimura that got the scoring started, coming up with a steal and then a dunk in transition. Davis also got going early with some easy buckets, including a thunderous poster dunk on Miles Bridges.
James hit an early triple although Terry Rozier and Bridges also connected from deep to give the Hornets a 15-13 lead.
The Lakers went ice cold from there while the Hornets remained hot from deep to extend their lead to nine. D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves came off the bench and gave the Lakers some much-needed offense to cut the deficit to 31-28 at the end of the first.
It didn’t take long for the Lakers to tie things up early in the second after Hachimura completed a three-point play and then Max Christie drilled a triple.
The Hornets responded with a 9-0 run before Davis got the Lakers back on track with a block and a layup. Davis then had another poster dunk although he picked up as technical for taunting after. Davis had another big dunk on an alley-oop from James to end the half, giving the Lakers a slim 58-57 lead going into the locker room.
After a quiet first half, James got going in the third with a few buckets although Bridges did the same for Charlotte.
The Lakers finally were able to gain some separation from there with James and Davis dominating inside to stretch the lead to double digits for the first time.
Davis eventually went to the bench with foul trouble but the Lakers still closed the quarter strong with Russell and Reaves leading the way, extending the lead to 99-80 going into the fourth quarter.
Christian Wood got another opportunity in the rotation and made the most of it, hitting a triple to begin the fourth as the Lakers continued to pour it on. The Lakers’ bench did such a nice job of extending the lead that James and Davis did not need to come back in the game, getting some much-needed rest in the fourth quarter.
Reaves and Russell continued to get whatever shots they wanted, bringing the crowd to their feet as the Lakers cruised to victory.
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