The Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason came to a close on Thursday night at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, when they hosted the Phoenix Suns.
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham utilized the last preseason game as a dress rehearsal, playing his healthy starters and normal rotations for what amounted to two and a half quarters in preparation for next week’s second regular season game between these two teams.
On the other side, Suns head coach Frank Vogel decided to sit stars Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, setting up Kevin Durant to face LeBron James for the first time since Christmas Day 2018.
Star players for L.A. played well, but without a point guard in the second half, the bench had trouble keeping up, and the Suns cruised to a 123-100 victory. The Lakers concluded the night without any new injuries, which is more crucial than their preseason record of 2-4.
The Lakers went on the board first when Davis finished a D’Angelo Russell give-and-go with a beautiful lob. When Davis completed another layup, Los Angeles was ahead 7-0 and Vogel was forced to use an early timeout.
Durant put the Suns on the board with a pair of free throws out of the break, but the Lakers continued to show early dominance thanks to some excellent ball movement that found Austin Reaves wide open for a 3-pointer.
Meanwhile, Davis was holding the opposition to just one point through eight minutes thanks to his five blocks. The Lakers started well offensively, but their production dropped down, allowing the Suns to come back and take a 24-20 lead into halftime.
The Lakers got a boost from the bench when Jaxson Hayes scored two points in a row, and then LeBron James hit a three-pointer and a layup in transition to give the team the lead back. In the meanwhile, Durant got the Suns rolling with a run of 9 consecutive points.
After Davis’s return to the game, the Aggies were once again competitive thanks to a triple from Davis and a three-point play. The Lakers were able to restore a double-digit advantage after that, with LeBron making two threes and Reaves making one. However, the Suns went on a mini-run at the end of the first half, spearheaded by Durant and Eric Gordon, and they only trailed by 58-54.
Halftime saw the end of Durant’s night, as the Lakers’ starters got in their customary limited third-quarter action. Unfortunately, they were unable to pull away, and the final 18 minutes of the exhibition game devolved into a fight of the bench staffs.
Without any point guards to help them out, the Lakers stumbled to a poor third-quarter finish as the Suns took charge. Keita Bates-Diop’s three-pointer at the end of the third quarter gave them a 16-point advantage (89-73) that they would not relinquish.
Max Christie finished the game as the Lakers’ starting point guard due to a lack of other options and contributed with a few points despite the team’s lopsided defeat.
