The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled against upper echelon teams this season, but one thing they have done well is take care of business against the bad teams.
They have another opportunity to do that on Friday night when they returned home and took on the Indiana Pacers, who are obviously tanking after Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles during the NBA Finals last season.
Considering the Lakers were in the second night of a back-to-back though, they were shorthanded in this one with LeBron James, Deandre Ayton and Maxi Kleber all out. That meant that other players needed to step up, and that’s exactly what they did to come away with a 128-117 win over Indiana to improve to 38-25.
The main force for the Lakers, as always, was Luka Doncic. He came out hot from the jump, scoring 22 points in the first quarter alone. He impressed with his two-way play all night, finishing with 44 points on 14-of-25 shooting to go along with nine rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks. With the Lakers taking care of business early, Doncic did all of that in just three quarters of action while resting the entire fourth.
Doncic has now scored 20-plus points in the first quarter five times this season, the most by any player in a season since play-by-play was first tracked in 1996-97.
Additionally, Doncic is the only player to record at least 29 points, six made 3-pointers, six rebounds and three assists in a single half this season and the only player to do so multiple times (four) in the last 30 seasons. When he is in the zone like he was in this one, Doncic is almost impossible to stop.
The Slovenian star did receive some help though as Austin Reaves got going in the second half to finish with 19 points, two rebounds and five assists. He fouled out for just the second time in his career, although the game was well out of reach at that point so it didn’t really matter.
Luke Kennard also had a strong game for the Lakers off the bench with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists on 6-of-9 shooting while Rui Hachimura had 13 and Marcus Smart had 11 to celebrate his 32nd birthday.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The tough part of the Lakers’ schedule continue as they host the New York Knicks in a Sunday afternoon matinee and then the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
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