After back-to-back big wins over the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to avoid a letdown on Monday night when they closed out their road trip against the Charlotte Hornets.
The Hornets came in losers of seven straight although there is no opponent in the league that L.A. can take lightly given their struggles this season. A win would mean a successful 4-2 road trip for the Lakers, and they were able to get that, beating the Hornets 124-118 to come home with a 27-25 record.
The Lakers predictably came out fast against the shorthanded Hornets as Ish Smith scored six quick points to give his team an 8-2 lead. D’Angelo Russell had a nice response for L.A. though with their first seven points and then LeBron James and Anthony Davis got going to tie the game at 11.
Davis continued to dominate inside from there and then Taurean Prince connected from deep as the Lakers began to take control. Miles Bridges did what he could to keep the Hornets in it with a pair of early triples though and the Lakers had a couple silly turnovers so their lead was cut to 37-29 at the end of the first.
James went into attack mode to begin the second quarter, extending the Laker lead to double digits. LeBron then had a thunderous dunk on the heels of back-to-backs 3s by Russell.
The Lakers continued pouring it on from there as Max Christie had some nice two-way play off the bench while Davis was doing some damage as a playmaker to give L.A. a 74-58 halftime lead.
Charlotte came out with some nice energy in the third quarter with Bridges throwing down so big dunks to cut the deficit to 12.
Davis continued to pass out of double teams at a high level though, finding guys like Prince for open 3s to get the lead back to 20. Davis wound up with a triple-double late in the third quarter, the third of his career and second of the season.
Brandon Miller had a nice little scoring run out of a timeout for the Hornets though to cut the Lakers lead to 100-86 at the end of the third.
Miller’s run continued into the fourth with four quick points to cut the deficit to 10. The Lakers needed a response from there and they got one with another triple by Russell.
Bridges and Miller did what they could to keep the Hornets within striking distance, knocking down big shot after big shot. But in the end, James and Davis were just too much for them to handle and the Lakers would go on to hang on for the victory.
Up next for the Lakers…
The Lakers now return home on Feb. 8 to host the defending-champion Denver Nuggets. Before that game though, the Lakers will honor franchise legend Kobe Bryant by unveiling his long-awaited statue outside the arena.
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