Bronny James Drops Career-High Points Despite Lakers Loss to Jazz

Even though the Lakers lost, there was a silver lining to the loss against Utah.

Feb 12, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James (9) shoots a three point shot against the Utah Jazz during the second half at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images / Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers are still trying to figure out how Luka Doncic fits in with the current Lakers roster. He played in just his second game with L.A/ against the Jazz on Wednesday.

It's going to take time to get him fully integrated with what the rest of the Lakers have around him. The Lakers weren't able to win against Utah in the second game of their series, falling 131-119.

Part of that is because they lost their starting center, Jaxson Hayes, just seven minutes into the game. They had no rim protection at all once he left.

Read more: Lakers’ Jaxson Hayes Out for Second Half With Face Injury

While the Lakers lost to the Jazz, not everything was bad for them. They were able to get a silver lining out of this loss.

That silver lining was Bronny James coming in and having a career-high effort in terms of scoring. He actually got to play eight minutes in this game due to the nature of this game.

James scored nine points on 3-4 shooting, including 2-3 from the 3-point line. He also had the best plus-minus of any player on the Lakers for this game.

This was by far the best that James has played at any point in the NBA this season. He's had some big outbursts for the South Bay Lakers in the G League, but this was his best performance in the NBA.

The Lakers are hoping that he can build upon this and play better basketball, no matter which team he's playing for. This could be the start of what they hope is more consistent basketball for him.

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Los Angeles is hoping that the only reason James is able to get this much playing time in the next few games is because they are up by a lot, not because they are losing by so much that the game is over.

The Lakers will now get some rest as they head into the All-Star break. That will allow them to get healthy before the stretch run that will determine what kind of run they will be able to make.

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