After picking up back-to-back big wins on the road, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to keep in rolling on Sunday night when they returned home and hosted the Miami Heat.
The Lakers and Heat have been two of the surprise teams to start the season, but it was L.A. that kept it going with a 130-120 victory to improve to 6-2 on the season.
Deandre Ayton was a late scratch due to back spasms, but the Lakers still came out of the gates hot as they jumped out to an 8-0 lead after five straight points from Rui Hachimura and then three from Luka Doncic.
Doncic then went to work as a playmaker, finding Jaxson Hayes for a pair of easy buckets and then a ridiculous pass to Hachimura for a triple to grow the lead to double digits.
Hayes was doing a nice job making up for the absence of Ayton early as he hit a rare triple and then finished an alley-oop from Austin Reaves. Even Bronny James was contributing as he caught a lob from Reaves as well and the Lakers took a 43-36 lead into the second quarter.
After not playing any defense in the first, the Heat locked in at the start of the second and began chipping away at their deficit. The could only hold Doncic down for so long though as he ripped off seven straight points to give L.A. its biggest lead at 18 before heading into the halftime locker room with a 77-63 advantage.
The Lakers came out flat to begin the third quarter and weren’t playing any defense, immediately allowing the Heat to climb back in the game. Doncic tried to get his team going offensively but they were struggling from outside, resulting in their lead being cut to 102-98 at the end of the third quarter.
Los Angeles native Jaime Jaquez Jr. was doing everything for the Heat and that continued with a putback dunk to begin the fourth.
JJ Redick was called at angry timeout at that point, and it was much-needed as the Lakers responded with a 10-3 run to get their lead back up to seven.
Reaves then hit a circus shot and hit Jake LaRavia for an easy bucket. LaRavia had a really strong game and after a tip-in, the Lakers’ lead was back to double digits. They had no issues closing it out in the final minutes, picking up a third straight win.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will not have much time to recover physically from this one as they will now hop on a plane and take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday in the second night of a back-to-back.
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