The Los Angeles Lakers were afforded several days off this past week, a rarity during the first portion of the 2025-26 season. However, they found themselves back on the road for a rematch against a Utah Jazz team they held on to beat just a few days ago.
The Lakers entered the matchup healthy, but that didn’t last long as Deandre Ayton was ruled out in the second half with a knee contusion. Jaxson Hayes started in his place and performed admirably, though the Jazz were able to mount a furious comeback in the fourth quarter and come within a possession of winning.
Fortunately for the Lakers, Keyonte George missed the game-winning 3-pointer and the team escaped with a 108-106 victory.
It was an unusually rough shooting start for Luka Doncic, who struggled to get his jumper going, though he was able to still manufacture points by getting to the free throw line per usual. Doncic did manage to get going later in the game working in the post and punishing smaller defenders for easier baskets.
The second half was roughly the same for Doncic from an efficiency standpoint, though he did finally see one of his deep 3-pointers go down. It wasn’t the cleanest game from Doncic, but he still led all scorers with 33 points to go along with eleven rebounds and eight assists in 40 minutes of action.
Austin Reaves was the perfect secondary scorer for the Lakers when the Jazz decided to force the basketball out of Doncic’s hands. Reaves was crafty with the basketball, getting to the rim and scoring though like Doncic he struggled shooting from the perimeter.
Reaves was an uncharacteristic 1-of-8 from deep, but he was still critical in the win as he found a way to score 22 points and pull down 10 rebounds.
LeBron James looked more like himself physically, streaking down the court for a couple of emphatic dunks. James was also back to being more of a distributor, showing off his passing chops with several impressive assists.
James had a well-rounded stat line of 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds.
Doncic had the highlight play of the night in the second quarter where he stole the basketball, dribbled the basketball under Kevin Love’s legs and then threw Jaxson Hayes a lob that got the bench off of its feet.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers return home to play the L.A. Clippers on Tuesday. They’ll then play the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, both of which are Emirates NBA Cup group play games
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