The Los Angeles Lakers went back on the road for a matchup with the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, the third matchup between the Pacific Division rivals in the last few weeks with them splitting the first two.
The Lakers continued to be shorthanded with Luka Doncic, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent out of the lineup. They did get Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton back, but that didn’t matter as they were blown out by the Suns, 132-108, to fall to 19-9 on the year.
With two starters out, Jake LaRavis was in the Lakers’ first group and began the game with five straight points. As is usually the case, LeBron James and ` Brooks immediately went right at each other to exchange buckets for their teams.
Reaves came off the bench for the Lakers as he appeared to be on a minutes restriction in his first game back. He immediately drew a foul on a 3-point attempt but was otherwise a little rusty to start and the Lakers trailed 29-26 at the end of the first.
The Lakers were careless with the ball to begin the second quarter and the Suns took advantage to build an eight-point lead. James got to the free throw line a couple of times to cut into the deficit, and then Reaves had a triple and a layup to cut it to four.
L.A.’s defense was nowhere to be found in the second as Phoenix was making everything. On the other hand, the Lakers were missing a ton of free throws and as a result went into the halftime locker room trailing 67-57.
It was a poor start to the third quarter for the Lakers with the Suns ripping off a 10-2 run to extend their lead and force a timeout by JJ Redick. Frustration was clearly mounting for L.A. as LaRavia picked up a technical foul while Phoenix continued to pour it on.
Brooks was hot offensively as he was scoring in a variety of ways to completely blow the game open with the Lakers trailing 112-86 at the end of the third.
Both teams emptied their respective benches early in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach. Unfortunately, the Lakers were dealt another blow in the injury department as Jaxson Hayes was ruled out with left ankle soreness.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will next take the court on Thursday evening when they host the Houston Rockets as part of the NBA’s annual Christmas Day slate.
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