Following a 2-2 road trip, the Los Angeles Lakers came back home to play the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. It was the third time that these two teams had played each other.

Jarred Vanderbilt made his season start for the Lakers, and Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, and Cam Reddish were all able to play again after missing time on the road trip. That’s why the Lakers were able to use their depth to easily win 107–97 and move to 12–9 on the year.

A corner three by Taurean Prince got the scoring going in this game. However, the Lakers had to take a quick break because Jalen Green elbowed Anthony Davis in the face. He was bleeding and needed help on the bench, but he got to stay in the game in the end.

They were sloppy with the ball at the start, though, and the Rockets took a 13-5 lead by making a lot of shots from the field. He helped the Lakers get back on track with a three-pointer, though, and then LeBron James slammed into Dillon Brooks for a three-point play.

Davis finally got going scoring with three straight baskets to tie the game at 23. He had been 0 for 6 up until that point. But the Rockets played well at the end of the quarter and went into the second quarter ahead 30–25.

James got things going in the second with a pair of baskets. Austin Reaves then made up for his slow start by getting to the free throw line and then completing a dunk in transition to put the Lakers ahead.

The Rockets had to use their timeout, but the Laker run kept going when Russell found Max Christie cutting for a dunk and then James did the same for Davis.

From there, the Rockets lost control, and Brooks and Ime Udoka both got technical fouls as the Lakers kept going on their run and made the lead double digits. L.A.’s length on defense really stood out, which helped them get stops and get out of the way quickly.

The lead grew to 58–40 after five more points from Reaves. The Rockets then got a much-needed three-pointer from Fred VanVleet. After a crazy 360-degree layup near the end of the half, James got the crowd to stand up. The Lakers were ahead 60–44 at the break.

The Lakers were a little slow to start the third quarter, just like they were at the beginning of the game. Davis’s huge dunk got them going again, though. After that, Prince hit five straight to get the lead back to 17.

In the third quarter, Christie made two 3-pointers, one of which beat the buzzer to give the Lakers an 86-72 lead after the Rockets started to cut into the lead.

At the start of the fourth, Reddish had a nice run. He stole the ball and then made a three-point play to keep the lead very comfortable. The crowd got up again when James found Jaxson Hayes for an alley-oop. This put the game out of reach for the other team, and the Lakers went on to win easily.

As the game went on, tempers rose, and several technical fouls were called. Udoka got his second, which got him thrown out of the game.