Lakers Final Score: Los Angeles Steamrolls Houston, Loses D'Angelo Russell
Tonight, turbocharged by a third straight stellar performance by Anthony Davis and a career LA night from Rui Hachimura, your Los Angeles Lakers walloped the Houston Rockets, in Houston, even without starting point guard D'Angelo Russell for the entire second half of the contest.
Davis' 40 points and nine rebounds led the way for LA in a 134-109 massacre the Lakers led for all but 18 seconds.
The Lakers have now won their third contest in a row on this five-game road trip, and have improved to two games above a .500 record at 40-38. LA is now the seventh seed in the West.
Elsewhere today already, another play-in contender, the Minnesota Timberwolves (whom LA already downed on its road trip Friday), lost their third straight game to fall to a 39-40 record, 1.5 games behind LA. The Lakers' and New Orleans Pelicans' place at least near the top of the play-in bracket is feeling a bit more secure.
In the game's first half, the Lakers galloped off to a significant edge, leading by as much as 19 points midway through the contest's second quarter before the Rockets closed out strong on a 15-10 run to shrink LA's margin to "just" 10, 70-60, at the break. Anthony Davis was already well on his way to a big night, having scored 27 points through two quarters.
LA fans were served some bad news during the break, when it was revealed that starting center D'Angelo Russell had been ruled out for the rest of the night with a sore left foot.
On the floor, Los Angeles barely missed a beat in the second half. Thanks to a 31-23 third quarter, LA headed into the final frame leading by 18. Darvin Ham yanked his starters midway through the fourth.
The Rockets are still very much a work-in-progress, but as has been the case fittingly this season, showed some flashes. Center Alperen Sengun recorded his third double-double in a row, with some excellent, crafty play on both ends of the floor. He had 18 points on 9-of-17 shooting, 15 boards, five dimes, three blocks and two steals. The team's backcourt tandem of point guard Kevin Porter Jr. and shooting guard Jalen Green combined to score 44 points, albeit on a just-okay 14-of-37 shooting from the field.
Overall, it was just another unhappy night for Houston, who have now lost eight of their last nine games and with the defeat stumble to their second straight 60-win season (they're 19-60).
Anthony Davis was the star of the show for Los Angeles, enjoying his third straight game on this road trip with 38 or more points and nine or more rebounds. Tonight, he had 40 points while shooting 15-of-20 from the floor and 10-of-12 from the charity stripe, nine rebounds, two blocks, and one assist.
Hachimura enjoyed the highest-scoring night of his Lakers career, notching 20 points off the bench on 10-of-14 shooting from the floor, mostly in the paint, pulling down 12 rebounds, and swatting three blocks.
LeBron James and Austin Reaves had 18 points apiece. James also logged his 107th career triple-double in just 29:21, grabbing 10 rebounds passing for 11 assists.
The Lakers led the the Rockets in field goal shooting, going 52-of-93 from the floor as opposed to Houston's 44-of-102. As usual, Los Angeles also took nearly triple the Rockets' free throw output. LA went 21-of-28 from the charity stripe, while Houston shot 8-of-10. Los Angeles also logged way more assists (36-23), more boards (58-50), and significantly more points in the paint (68-56) and fastbreak points (20-9).
Next up on what AD has called the "get-back trip," LA will hope to put the nail in the coffin of the 36-42 Utah Jazz's season on Tuesday night. Here's hope D'Angelo Russell will recuperate sooner rather than later.
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