After a rough end to 2023, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to get back on track when they hosted the Miami Heat in their first game of 2024.
The Lakers were without a couple key pieces in D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura while the Heat were without Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin. Ultimately, it was the Heat that came out on top with a 110-96 victory to drop the Lakers below .500 at 17-18.
Austin Reaves returned to the starting lineup for L.A. and immediately made an impact with a sweet dish to LeBron James for a layup and then a midrange shot of his own. The Lakers still got off to a slow start though as Kyle Lowry had five quick points to give the Heat a 12-9 lead into the first timeout.
Things didn’t get better out of the timeout as the Lakers were turning the ball over at will and Tyler Herro capitalized with six quick points to extend the Heat lead to double digits.
In addition to the turnover, the Lakers were also ice cold from deep in the first quarter. Luckily, the Heat struggled as well so L.A.’s deficit was 25-18 going into the second quarter.
Max Christie finally connected on the Lakers’ first triple to begin the second although Josh Richardson responded with one for Miami. The ugly basketball otherwise continued into the second though with both teams struggling to score.
Oddly enough, the only Laker that had any sort of offensive rhythm was Christie with five straight points at one point. Anthony Davis also got going inside after a quiet first quarter. It still wasn’t a pretty end to the half though and the Lakers went into the locker room trailing 53-45.
After only coring four points in the first half, James got going with four quick points to begin the third quarter. The Heat began to heat up from deep though, allowing them to maintain their lead of around 10.
It wasn’t until the end of the third that the Lakers made a dent as Christie had a poster dunk on Bam Adebayo and then Davis went to work on both sides of the ball to get it down to three.
The Lakers eventually went into the fourth quarter trailing 72-67, really struggling to make shots from outside. With that being the case, the Heat quickly built their lead back up to 10 early in the fourth.
Davis continued doing what he could though, including another monster dunk to keep his team in it. Unfortunately though, he just did not have enough help offensively and the Heat continued to make tough shots to close out the victory.
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