The Los Angeles Lakers continued their road trip on Sunday evening, looking to get back on track against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center.
The Lakers lost to the Nets at home earlier in the season so were hoping to get some revenge and were able to do so with a 116-104 victory.
L.A. got off to a quick 6-0 start with Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura doing work inside to force an early Nets timeout. Nothing changed for Brooklyn out of the timeout as the Lakers kept pouring it on. Hachimura hit a triple and Davis had another dunk to make it 15-0, forcing another early timeout.
It wasn’t until more than halfway through the first quarter that the Nets finally got on the scoreboard, getting a modest applause from their home fans. After five straight points by Davis and some free throws by LeBron James, the Lakers lead ballooned to 26-4.
At that point, Lakers guard Gabe Vincent checked in for the first time since December after undergoing knee surgery. He immediately got on the statsheet with a rebound and then a midrange bank shot. Everything seemed to be going right for the Lakers early as they led 31-11 at the end of the first quarter.
D’Angelo Russell began the second with a bucket, giving him 10,000 points for his career. James then got in on the action with three 3-pointers in a row. The Lakers defense let up in a big way though as the Nets quickly got their deficit back to 15, causing head coach Darvin Ham to take a timeout.
With the team in need of some buckets, Hachimura went back to work inside with two more in a row. Russell then connected from deep to get the lead back up to 20. The fun continued from there with Russell finding Reaves for another alley-oop and then James beating the buzzer to put the Lakers up 67-44 at the half.
Russell and Reaves were still having fun in the third quarter, each coming up with steals and buckets early. The Nets had a nice response though with a 12-2 run led by Dennis Schroder as they refused to go away without a fight.
Turnovers were an issue for the Lakers in the third quarter as they were extremely careless with the ball. Cam Thomas eventually heated up for Brooklyn and they were able to get all the way within 11 at 90-79 at the end of the third quarter after beating the buzzer with a putback.
Brooklyn scored to begin the fourth, pulling within single digits for the first time since the first two minutes of the game. James had a nice response, however, with back-to-back triples.
LeBron was already putting on a show, but it continued from there as he was unconscious from deep. He closed the game out single-handedly and even had the Barclays crowd on their feet cheering for him to shoot more.
James would finish the night with 40 points, six rebounds and seven assists on a ridiculous 13-of-17 from the field and 9-of-10 from deep.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers finish up their road trip against two of the worst teams in the league, playing the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday and then the Washington Wizards on Wednesday in a back-to-back.
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