The Los Angeles Lakers returned home on Monday night as hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder as a part of the NBA’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day slate.
The Thunder came in as of one the hottest teams in the league while the Lakers were one of the coldest, but this game looked a lot different as L.A. came out on top with a 112-105 victory.
Oklahoma City got off to a hot start with back-to-back 3-pointers before Anthony Davis and LeBron James got the Lakers on the board with midrange shots.
Despite some quality defense by the Lakers early though, the Thunder continued to hit deep shots until D’Angelo Russell scored four straight to tie the game at 19.
The Thunder took a timeout although that did stop the Laker run as Davis had four buckets in a row and then Rui Hachimura had a big block on the other end. Oklahoma City closed the quarter strong though, getting the deficit down to just one at 27-26.
James began te second quarter with an absolute dime to Christian Wood for a dunk. After getting in foul trouble early though, Chet Holmgren returned in the second quarter and had a big dunk of his own.
Rebounding was an issue for the Lakers as the Thunder regained the lead with a few second-chance opportunities.
Russell continued his hot start to the night with back-to-back triples although he couldn’t make a third at the buzzer and the teams went into the halftime locker room tied at 50.
James had back-to-back buckets to begin the third, starting to get going after a pretty quiet first half by his standards. The Thunder got going offensively from there though, opening up a six-point lead.
From there though, the Lakers scored seven straight, including a 3-pointer by Austin Reaves and back-to-back layups by Davis to take the lead right back.
The Lakers finally started to somewhat take control from there as James hit a triple and then Davis had two monster dunks, extending the lead to 84-76 at the end of three.
Jarred Vanderbilt was making big contributions defensively all night and then got in it on the other end as well with a three-point play. As they normally do though, the Thunder continued to hang around, trailing by 5-9 points for most of the fourth quarter.
Hachimura came up big for the Lakers late though with a dunk and then a 3 to get the lead back to double digits. The Thunder would get within six late, but Davis put down another huge dunk to close out the victory for L.A.
Up next for the Lakers
The Lakers continue their home-heavy January slate on Wednesday night when they host the Dallas Mavericks. They then hosted the Brooklyn Nets on Friday.
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