Lakers begin homestand with victory over Thunder – Daily News

Lakers begin homestand with victory over Thunder – Daily News

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LOS ANGELES — That’s how a desperate team is supposed to start a homestand.

The last time the Lakers kicked off a lengthy stay in Los Angeles, they did so with a sluggish loss to the Miami Heat on Jan. 3, which started an eventual 2-3 homestand.

The Lakers’ sense of urgency to not let this opportunity pass them by, with their next five games in Los Angeles, was visible from the jump on Monday night, resulting in a 112-105 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at Crypto.com Arena.

“This is a huge win,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “Oklahoma City, one of the better teams, not just in the Western Conference, but in the league. It’s a great win to get. It’s been tough, but again, like I told them yesterday, we have a chance going forward, just focusing on the business we have to take care of moving forward, but just taking everything one day at a time.”

Returning to the starting unit that they began the season with, the Lakers (20-21) had the type of balance that Ham and his team have been looking for nearly all season long.

Their stars, LeBron James (25 points, seven rebounds, six assists) and Anthony Davis (27 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, two steals, one blocked shot), made their impacts felt from the outset. And the depth of the roster came through.

But when the game got tight late, with the Lakers’ 13-point fourth-quarter lead cut to six with 2:05 remaining, the Lakers’ top players worked together to help seal the victory: a James-Austin Reaves pick-and-roll, with Davis cutting baseline before James fed him for a dunk to give the Lakers a 108-100 lead with 51 seconds left.

“That’s five years of playing together,” Davis said. “LeBron is a great passer. Me and him just have that connection. … Just a lot of time and effort, blood and sweat we put into the game to have that connection.”

The Thunder (27-12), who had the opportunity to tie the Minnesota Timberwolves (28-11) for the best record in the conference, missed two 3-point attempts before Jalen Williams (25 points, six assists, three steals) made one after running off 23 seconds of game clock.

Reaves (15 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go with seven assists) and Davis both made a pair of free throws down the stretch with the Thunder intentionally fouling.

The result was just the Lakers’ sixth win in their last 18 games, but there’s hope that it can be a spark for the kind of winning run they haven’t experienced in more than a month.

“When we have high-assist games where guys are feeling in a rhythm, it’s a pretty good game for us,” James said, noting their 30 assists on 44 field goals. “We’ve got to try to look at this and be more consistent with that.”

D’Angelo Russell, starting his second consecutive game after being in a reserve role for a few weeks, finished with 14 points and seven assists.

“These are huge games,” Russell said. “They all matter. This was a huge game for us to win. And the next few that are coming up, big wins for us to get, to just go into that [Grammy] road trip with some rhythm and flow.”

Rui Hachimura (12 points, two blocks) and Christian Wood (11 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) made significant contributions off the bench. As did Jarred Vanderbilt, especially defensively with his three steals in 18 minutes.

“All three complement each other,” Ham said. “All three were huge in helping us get this win. C-Wood hit a big 3, some big finishes at the rim, some big blocked shots. Vando, his energy, his scrappiness, able to switch off. Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) is a tough cover. There’s no one man that’s gonna stop Shai. You have to run several people at him. Make him see different bodies. And then Rui just giving us that scoring punch off the bench. Their skill sets totally complement one another, and complement the starters who we put out there with them.”

Cam Reddish sat out with knee swelling, and the Lakers started Russell, Reaves, James, Davis and Taurean Prince for the first time since Nov. 8.

“Just wanted to put as much skill and shotmaking on the floor around our two captains,” Ham said. “And those five, they’ve been pretty much our most consistent guys throughout the season thus far. So just put them together. And like I said, for the foreseeable future, that’s gonna be our lineup barring any type of injury.

“It went well. A lot of contributions. Talked about everybody pouring into one another. Covering for one another. Helping each other be great on both sides of the ball. And I think we saw that.”

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