Los Angeles Lakers smiled again with a robust victory away from home against the Brooklyn Nets (96-106) on a night when it shone again LeBron James and in which I also returned Anthony Davis After almost a month and a half out due to injury.
LeBron once again offered a very complete performance (33 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists) and blew the game away in the last quarter with two steals and two consecutive kills that definitively surrendered to the Nets.
Davis started and played 25 minutes in which he got 8 points (3 of 8 shooting), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and 4 blocks..
Malik Monk (22 points with 6 of 12 in triples), Russell Westbrook (15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists) and Carmelo Anthony (13 points) rounded off the solid attacking night of the Lakers who made 47.2% of their shots.
The purple and gold are having a very disappointing season and landed New York with a worrying crisis of results (three losses in the last five games).
However, this victory against the Nets plus the return of Davis could give them renewed encouragement to climb positions in the West before the All-Star game (February 18-20).
weighed down by the casualties of Kevin Durant due to injury and Kyrie Irving for not having been vaccinated against the coronavirus, the Nets unsuccessfully entrusted themselves to James Harden (triple-double with 33 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists).
The locals won the rebound with great sufficiency (54 against 33 for the Lakers) but sank with the triples (7 of 27) and their 18 turnovers.
Davis starts strong
Anthony Davis did not want to go unnoticed on his return.
In his first intervention he connected an “alley-oop” served by LeBron James, shortly after he showed that his shot from mid-range was still in tune, and then he put up two blocks in just over five minutes.
The presentation of the Lakers had been very interesting with an evident intensity in attack, but James Harden, with 11 points in a great start, was in charge of calming the spirits of the Angelenos (15-12 with 6:36 on the clock).
Harden reached 16 points in the first quarter but no one on the Nets raised a hand to support him.
With this panorama, the Lakers smelled blood, puffed out their chests with a 60.9% accuracy rate in field goals and closed the first quarter with a 2-12 in the last two minutes driven by the reinforcement of Malik Monk from the bench (25 -33).
Carmelo Anthony joined Monk’s party from the perimeter in the second quarter against a Nets with no answers on defense and little imagination on offense (29-42 with 8.56 at halftime).
With sporadic contributions from Patty Mills Y LaMarcus Aldridge, the Brooklynites found some relief for a Harden who seemed exhausted at times.
But the problems for the locals were in a very fragile and weak defense that the Lakers manipulated as they wanted in the first half (53-62).
Harden came into the break with 22 points (9-of-18 shooting), but Monk (16 points) and LeBron (15 points) led a Laker team that made 53.3% of their shots, that got 20 points on the fast break and whose Nico but it was his laziness in the rebound (18 against 30 of the Nets).
LeBron ends the game
The Nets came back from the locker room with one more point of anger and concentration on defense to get slightly closer on the scoreboard (63-69 with 7.18 to play).
Harden, with 11 points in a row, danced at a Avery Bradley clearly overwhelmed and frustrated by some refereeing decisions.
However, Russell Westbrook made his way into the Lakers with several powerful penetrations that kept the purple and gold with a comfortable lead (76-86 with 2.28 left).
The confidence and security of the Lakers is clearly seen in the young and surprising Austin Reaves, a boy for everything in this team and who, giving his all for offensive rebounds or forcing fouls in attack, led the Lakers to match their biggest difference of the night just before entering the fourth quarter (78-92).
At the most inopportune moment, the Angels got bogged down in an important scoring drought of more than three minutes in the fourth quarter until Anhony cut it from the free throw.
Despite this, the Nets were unable to take advantage of that moment of weakness for their rivals due to their turnover problems.
The Lakers benefited from the Nets’ laziness and LeBron closed the game with two spectacular dunks after two steals in a row.
