The road trip started out off for the Los Angeles Lakers as they were blown out by the Orlando Magic, so they were hoping to turn their fortunes around when they arrived at South Beach to play the Miami Heat.
However, Los Angeles couldn’t complete a comeback and lost to Miami 108-107.
The Lakers got off to a great start shooting from outside as Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell knocked in back-to-back threes. Bam Adebayo gave Los Angeles problems inside, but the defense tightened up to give them a 19-14 lead.
LeBron James looked comfortable offensively back in Miami as he hunted his shots, though the Heat stayed right on their hip. Anthony Davis got himself going with some easy shots at the rim, but the two teams ended the first quarter tied 33-33.
The Heat bench came out as the aggressors at the top of the second as they went on a quick 7-2 run to take a 40-35 lead. The Lakers looked to get back in the game by attacking the basket and they were able to tie things up at 47 apiece.
Taurean Prince showed no signs of the knee injury as he played well on both ends, even knocking down a three to put L.A. back on top. However, the Heat answered back toward the end of the second and left the Lakers trailing 62-59.
Davis appeared to hurt himself and went back to the locker room before the end of the half. It was later reported that Davis suffered a hip/groin spasm, but returned to begin the third quarter.
Prince was able to score a couple of baskets to begin the second half, but the Lakers were forced to call timeout as Davis struggled to move well and was replaced by Christian Wood. James got the crowd excited with a couple of vintage dunks, and Davis somehow managed to return after going back to the locker room a second time.
Things started to get away from the Lakers as the Heat executed their offense to key a 10-0 run. The situation got worse as Davis clearly couldn’t go and Los Angeles went into the fourth trailing 90-79.
James tried to inject some life into the team with another thunderous dunk and a Reaves three trimmed the deficit to just six. However, Miami responded with a mini run and Los Angeles saw D’Angelo Russell get ejected after arguing with the officials.
Despite all the adversity, the purple and gold managed to rally midway through the fourth to get within a couple of possessions. James took over the game in crunch time and gave L.A. a chance to steal the game, but Cam Reddish missed the potential game-winner from the corner and the Lakers took another loss.
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