In the NBA In-Season Tournament’s last group play match, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.
The Lakers defeated the Jazz 131-97 to ensure that they would win their group and move on to the quarterfinals. As one of the top two seeds in the West, L.A. will play their quarterfinal match at home before the tournament moves to Las Vegas for the semifinals and finals because they went undefeated in group play.
In this one, LeBron James scored the first basket after D’Angelo Russell found him for a simple basket. With two free throws and a triple to start the game, James gave the Lakers an early 11-7 lead. LeBron crossed the 39,000-point mark with the 3-pointer, making league history as the first player to accomplish so.
Early on, the Lakers were hammering the Jazz in the low post. Anthony Davis, Christian Wood, and Taurean Prince all made simple layups to build a double-digit lead, 24–11.
After Austin Reaves hit a late three-pointer, L.A. led 32–17 entering the second quarter. Davis led the way with 11 points and nine rebounds in the first quarter alone. Max Christie played in place of Lakers starting wing Cam Reddish, who was sidelined for the remainder of the game after the first quarter because of groin pain.
The Jazz started the second quarter with a brief surge that brought their deficit back to double digits. But the Lakers rallied after that, with Russell making a deep shot to cut the deficit to 16 and forcing a timeout from Utah while Davis kept pressing them low.
Los Angeles led 62–41 at the half as the Jazz struggled to keep the Lakers out of the paint and off the free throw line.
The Jazz struggled to make any 3-pointers in the first half, but they rebounded well in the third quarter, making two straight to close the gap to 15. Russell and LeBron nailed back-to-back 3-pointers after LeBron flushed a dunk, but the Lakers replied with another run of their own.
After that, Rui Hachimura joined in the fun, making back-to-back threes of his own, and the Lakers went into the fourth quarter leading 102-75.
The Lakers would eventually secure the victory since there was no miraculous Jazz run to be had. James finished with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists, and two steals, while Davis had a stellar showing with 26 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Considering that the Lakers host the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday in the second leg of a back-to-back, the fact that neither player appeared in the fourth quarter is significant.