In their final home game of 2023, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night.

The Lakers defeated the Hornets 133–112 to move to 17–15 on the season, easily fulfilling their goal of getting back on track following a difficult defeat to the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.

Darvin Ham started with a massive lineup that included LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt, Taurean Prince, and Rui Hachimura in place of Cam Reddish, who was out due to a groyne injury.

Naturally, Hachimura was the one who opened the scoring with a steal and a transition slam. Additionally, Davis started out quickly with a few easy baskets, including a massive poster slam on Miles Bridges.

The Hornets led 15–13 after James made an early three-pointer, but Terry Rozier and Bridges also made deep shots.

From that point on, the Hornets heated up from deep to increase their advantage to nine points, while the Lakers went cold from there. At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers were down 31-28 thanks to some much-needed offensive from D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, who came off the bench.

The Lakers quickly tied the game in the opening minutes of the second quarter when Hachimura made a three-point play and Max Christie sank a triple.

Before Davis used a block and a layup to put the Lakers back on track, the Hornets answered with a 9-0 run. After that, Davis scored another spectacular slam, but he was called out for taunting. The Lakers had a narrow lead, 58-57, heading into the locker room after Davis scored another huge slam on an alley-oop from James to close the half.

James got things rolling in the third quarter with a few buckets after a quiet first half, but Bridges did the same for Charlotte.

From then, the Lakers were eventually able to pull away, with James and Davis controlling the inside to extend the lead to double digits for the first time.

With Russell and Reaves leading the way, the Lakers finished the quarter strong and increased their lead to 99-80 heading into the fourth quarter. Davis finally fouled out.

The Lakers were putting on quite the show, and Christian Wood took advantage of his second shot in the rotation by starting the fourth quarter with a three. James and Davis were able to get some much-needed rest in the fourth quarter because the Lakers bench did a fantastic job of extending the advantage.

The fans rose to their feet as the Lakers easily won, and Reaves and Russell kept getting the shots they desired.