The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night, looking to get back over .500 on the season just past the halfway point.
The Lakers came in winners of two straight and four of their last six while the Nets had lost four straight and nine of their last 10. Those streaks came to an end as the Lakers had an abysmal second-half performance to suffer the 130-112 defeat.
Anthony Davis has been in a groove lately and that continued early in this one as he got the Lakers on the board with a jumper and then a dunk. D’Angelo Russell then went to work against his former team with five straight points to give the Lakers an early 11-4 lead.
Russell continued to have it going early with a layup and a second triple to extend the lead to double digits at 22-11.
Cam Thomas came off the bench and immediately had it going for the Nets though with 10 straight points to keep them in it. The Lakers closed the quarter well though with Russell and Christie connecting from deep to give them a 37-28 lead.
Former Lakers guard Lonnie Walker IV made his return as a member of the Nets and scored seven quick points to begin the second, although LeBron James responded with back-to-back 3-pointers.
Walker kept it going from there, having a similar scoring run to Thomas in the first quarter to keep his team in it.
Again though, James responded, this time with a pair of and-ones to get the home crowd going. Mikal Bridges finally started getting going offensively to end the half though, cutting the Nets’ deficit to 68-62 going into the locker room.
The Lakers were sloppy to begin the third quarter and before they knew it, the Nets took the lead after a triple by Bridges.
A timeout didn’t really do the trick for L.A. as the starters continued to struggle until Austin Reaves finally ended the spell with back-to-back layups. Despite that though, the Brooklyn continued to pour it on to take a double digit lead at 90-80.
Jarred Vanderbilt did his part to get the Lakers back in it with back-to-back triples, but the Lakers still trailed by 10 at 100-90 going into the fourth.
The Lakers continued to struggle to begin the fourth as James missed a few layups and expressed frustration with the lack of foul calls, picking up a technical.
The Nets continued to pour it on from there as Walker connected from deep again to get their lead up to 18. The Lakers had a lot of makable shots inside but just could not convert. The Nets would go on to cruise to victory after their dominant second-half performance.
Up next for the Lakers
The Lakers next take the court on Sunday night when they host the struggling Portland Trail Blazers at 7 p.m. PT.
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