The Los Angeles Lakers road trip did not exactly go as planned, as they dropped their first three games, two of which were very winnable.
They had one game left before heading home, Monday night against the Phoenix Suns in what turned into almost a must-win for the Lakers as going 0-4 on their first road trip of the season would have left the Lakers questioning what kind of team they are, especially with the amount of youth on the roster.
Luckily though, while it wasn’t pretty for much of the game, the Lakers were able to pull away from the Suns in the fourth quarter and hung on for a 100-93 win to move to 6-8 on the season.
Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson was a big reason for the win, as he scored a season-high 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting to go along with three rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes.
Head coach Luke Walton decided to stick with the hot hand in the fourth quarter, as Clarkson and Corey Brewer played the entire period while starters Lonzo Ball and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were on the bench, something that Ball didn’t mind one bit as the Lakers were able to come away with the win.
Brewer was in there due to his hustle plays and defense on Suns guard Devin Booker, who did a lot of damage in the first three quarters of the game, but not much in the fourth and overall finished with 36 points on 14-of-27 shooting.
The Lakers return home Wednesday as take on another young, up-and-coming team in Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers.
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