The Los Angeles Lakers took on the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night in their penultimate preseason game. With the preseason finale coming Friday in the second of a back-to-back, the thought was that this would be a dress rehearsal with close to normal rotations for the Lakers.
LeBron James and Rui Hachimura were ruled out on the day of the game, however, so JJ Redick was already without two of his starters going into the game with others on minute restrictions. The Lakers still played solid overall, coming back to earn a 128-122 victory in overtime.
Anthony Davis was in the lineup for the Lakers and kicked things off with eight straight points, including a pair of rare triples, to give his team an 8-3 lead.
Davis didn’t stop there as he made two more 3-pointers, but Devin Booker had a nice response with one of his own to cut the Lakers’ lead to 20-18.
Meanwhile, Austin Reaves got going offensively to end the first quarter, putting the Lakers up 35-30.
Reaves continued his hot streak into the second and joined Davis with as the leading scorers in the first half for the Lakers. The defense slowed down to end the second quarter though as Booker stayed hot, giving the Suns a 67-62 halftime lead.
The Lakers were clearly outmanning missing James and Hachimura while Booker and Kevin Durant did their thing offensively, but L.A. still hung in there for much of the third quarter.
Davis looked like he is ready for the regular season with D’Angelo Russell finding him for some easy buckets to give the big man 26 points through three quarters. With not much defense being played, the Lakers trailing 90-82 at the end of the third.
Davis actually stayed in for the first half of the fourth quarter and continued his dominance, finishing with 35 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block in 34 minutes.
Despite Davis’ efforts and some nice outside shooting from rookie Dalton Knecht though, the Lakers found themselves trailing late.
They had a look in the final seconds trailing by three, and Knecht drilled another one with 4.8 to play to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, it was all Knecht as he continued pouring in 3s, both open and contested, to lead the Lakers to an impressive comeback win.
Knecht matched Davis with 35 points, including 20 straight for the Lakers at one point, on 10-of-18 shooting and 8-of-13 from deep.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers will close out the preseason on Friday night against the Golden State Warriors on the road with the regular likely to sit out in the second of a back-to-back. They then open up the regular season at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday.
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