Lakers Highlights: LA Sweeps Pool Play Round Of In-Season Tournament With Jazz Win

LeBron James finally played below his minutes limit!

Your Los Angeles Lakers have qualified for the quarterfinals of the league's first-ever In-Season Tournament!

At 4-0 against their (very beatable) West Group A bracket competition, LA will now ride this win into the In-Season Tournament's quarterfinals with home court advantage.

LA achieved all this with its most dominant victory of the season, a cakewalk 131-99 massacre of the visiting Utah Jazz that was over by the half.

Though opening quarters have often been an issue for Los Angeles, that proved not be the case tonight, as LA galloped to a 32-17 start.

All-NBA power forward LeBron James (10 points), star center Anthony Davis (a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double) and point guard D'Angelo Russell (12 points in the half; he ultimately had a big game both as a scorer and distributor) took over for the Lakers early. James and Davis wasted little time in showing off the two-man connection they've been honing for the past five seasons while with the Purple and Gold:

THAT LEBRON AND AD CONNECTION >>> pic.twitter.com/v9aib8j1j7

— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) November 22, 2023

After Cam Reddish exited the game for good with a groin injury early in the first quarter, second-year shooting guard Max Christie supplied some good minutes and flashed some intriguing two-way ability.

The most notable moment of LA's opening half was perhaps this LeBron James trey, which helped the prolific forward extend his NBA regular season career scoring record beyond the 39K mark for the first time in league history:

With this triple LeBron James has now scored 39,000 points in his NBA career 👏

🏆 NBA In-Season Tournament
🏀West Group A action on TNT pic.twitter.com/xfRaMOE1f7

— NBA (@NBA) November 22, 2023

Fans who may have been concerned Los Angeles would let its foot off the gas in the third (and thus need another big-minutes November game out of 38-year-old James) need not have feared. Darvin Ham had this group playing connected basketball, mostly to support some tough interior scoring from James and Davis. 

Though the Jazz went on a 6-2 mini-run to open the period, this baseline drive into a slam from James essentially stole the souls of Utah.

He knew not to jump with LeBron! 🔨 pic.twitter.com/m64h5qfnNB

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 22, 2023

A pair of back-to-back Rui Hachimura triples made midway through the third period, while LeBron James sat no less, improved LA's lead to 92-63, essentially sealing the contest.

With James and Davis sitting out the entire fourth quarter, Darvin Ham opted for a two-big lineup. 

Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes delivered in kind with a veritable dunk-fest. Austin Reaves got a bit too flashy for his own good, which occasionally led to some sloppy turnovers as both teams waited for time to run out, but he also had some slick, successful finishes and dishes of his own.

Utah couldn't buy a bucket all night, finishing with a terrible 38.8% field goal shooting mark (25% from deep on 44 tries), far below LA's excellent 57% (37.9%, albeit on a disappointingly scant 29 attempts). The scoring drought got especially egregious during the fourth quarter, when both teams were resting key starters. Missing starting center Walker Kessler, the club's defensive anchor inside, for the sixth straight game with an elbow sprain, the Jazz also struggled to contain Los Angeles defensively, especially in the post.

Davis finished with a team-best 26 points and 16 rebounds. Russell was the club's only other 20+ point scorer, notching 20 on the nose while shooting 7-of-9 from the floor (3-of-4 from deep) and 3-of-5 shooting from the charity stripe. He also notched eight dimes.

As we know when it comes to D-Lo, the OSU product can be a bit trick-or-treat out there on offense. Tonight, his shot was falling, as can be seen in his note-perfect form here:

DLo 👌 pic.twitter.com/Vn97bWOPVT

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 22, 2023

In even better long-term news (aside from the win, which pushes LA to 9-6 on the year), only one Laker, starting small forward Taurean Prince, played more than 30 minutes. The 6'7" swingman logged a still-modest 30:34. LeBron James at last got to rest his weary 38-year-old bones, playing just 24 minutes. In that time, he scored 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field (3-of-5 from deep, as his excellent long-range sniping run this year continues) and 2-of-2 shooting from the charity stripe.

The Lakers' next In-Season Tournament appearance will be a single-game elimination matchup, slated for December 4th or 5th, and will be broadcast once again on TNT.

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