Phew. The Los Angeles Lakers barely edged out the Atlanta Hawks in this early game on this fine Sunday, winning 101-96. Here’s our recap of what was a pretty messy game for the Lakers.
LeBron James razzles and dazzles all afternoon
The GOAT had himself another GOAT night, dropping 32 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists.
The NBA assists leader actually didn’t have many assists at the break, and didn’t get his first one until two minutes left in the 2nd quarter. However, the first one was a dandy.
LEBRON TO DWIGHT
BETWEEN HIS LEGS 😳 pic.twitter.com/pIsg2qKZGI
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) December 16, 2019
In addition to the highlight plays that LeBron was making like the above clip, he was also clowning at times in the first half. The biggest example of LeBron just having too much fun was this fastbreak with him and Rajon Rondo. Check out the 34-year-old kid fake blocking Rondo’s layup after he opted to not give LeBron the oop.
LeBron James’ fake block on Rajon Rondo.
Video credit: @BleacherReport. pic.twitter.com/uMptDl0Vkj
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 15, 2019
The Lakers shoot terribly from three
Coming into this game, the Lakers had been climbing the ranks of the best three-point shooting teams in the NBA. The Lakers were actually ranked 7th in the league in 3P% before the game but played like a bottom-tier three-point shooting team in this one. They shot 5-of-31, putting up one of their worst performances of the season.
On the other side, the Hawks had a pretty inefficient game themselves from deep, shooting 12-of-42. Still, their shooting gave them a +21 advantage on the Lakers on three-pointers alone.
Lakers lack focus, have their sloppiest game of the year
This seemed like a bit of a hangover game for the Lakers (which I might be spot on with that analogy as the team was in Miami on Friday).
They seemed to play sloppy for the entire contest, and would have probably lost to a more superior opponent than the Atlanta Hawks. Their sloppiness resulted in 22 turnovers, which was easily the most the Lakers have had in a single game this season.
Anthony Davis turns his right ankle
With about three minutes left in the contest, Davis turned his ankle on an and-one. He stayed in the game and seemed fine at first, but as plays went on it was obvious that the ankle was giving him a bit of a limp.
We’ll keep you updated on his status for the next game, and the rest of the month moving forward.
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The Lakers will have an off-day in between road games tomorrow before heading to Indianapolis to take on the Pacers on Tuesday. After that, arguably the Lakers’ biggest game of the year so far will be on Thursday, as the team will be taking on the Eastern Conference’s number one seed, the Milwaukee Bucks.
