The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Charlotte Hornets 133–111 on Thursday night. LeBron James had 17 points and 11 assists, and Anthony Davis had 26 points and 8 rebounds. It was James’s 39th birthday the next day.

The Lakers won their third game in a row after winning the NBA’s first In-Season Tournament almost three weeks ago. Rui Hachimura scored 17 points and Austin Reaves added 16. The Hornets were having a tough time, but Los Angeles pulled away with a 41-point third quarter, with 12 points each from Hachimura and James.

Los Angeles built a 28-point lead early in the fourth, and coach Darvin Ham rested James and Davis for the whole quarter. It was a rare blowout win for the Lakers, who have only had eight wins by ten points all season.

Davis, who stopped four shots, said, “Guys were playing for each other and the right way.” “It helps us as a team whenever I can save some minutes, especially before a tough back-to-back in Minnesota and New Orleans.”

James is the oldest player in the NBA, but he doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all in his 21st season. He ran the offence for long stretches and made two 3-pointers. He also led the crucial third-quarter comeback. Los Angeles had 41 goals, which was the most in the season.

Davis said, “Good things always happen when the ball is in his hands.” “He writes great books. He knows a lot about the game. The more we can get the ball into his hands, the better. He’s seen every coverage and made a lot of good reads throughout his career.

For the Lakers, D’Angelo Russell made four 3-pointers and scored 16 points. One of them was the 1,300th of his career. The best play of the second half was Reaves’s smooth move behind Terry Rozier to make a layup while Los Angeles was running away.

Reaves said, “I think that every time we play, we can beat anyone.” “But I think the most important thing is to figure out who we are because once we do that, we can be so good.”

Bridges scored 20 points and Rozier had 18 for the Hornets, who have lost eight straight games for the first time since late 2014. Charlotte kept up with the Lakers for most of the first half, but after halftime, they had trouble against LA’s zone defence, and they lost their second straight game at this shared downtown arena to start a six-game road trip.

I think we’d be fine if we just played defence without drawing fouls, said 17-point rookie Brandon Miller. “I think the most important thing tonight was being in the right places.” It seems like I messed up a few things.”

LaMelo Ball, who is from the Los Angeles area, missed his 14th straight game because of a broken left ankle for the Hornets. They have to play both LA teams, Phoenix, Denver, and Sacramento in eight days on this trip. Charlotte also doesn’t have big guy Mark Williams (back) or Gordon Hayward (calf).

Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said, “Our guys have worked hard, but they know we’re short-handed.” “This trip is hard. When you get hurt is often more important than how many times you get hurt in this game. We’ve had more than our fair share of accidents, which is bad because this is not the time to be short-staffed. But the other night (against the Clippers), we played 41 good minutes. We were there. Tonight, we played for about 21 and a half minutes. We only need to defend ourselves.”

After coming back into the Lakers’ starting lineup to replace Cam Reddish, who was out with a groyne injury, Hachimura took a while to get going from the field. The Lakers made 10 of their first 12 shots in the second half, though, and quickly built their first double-digit lead of the night. He led the way with James and Davis.

This was Los Angeles’ ninth different starting group in 32 games this season. Last season, the Lakers had to use 39 different starting lines. This year, James and Davis have been mostly healthy, missing just five games between them. Coach Darvin Ham said that he thinks Davis and James will be able to play in both of their future road games at Minnesota and New Orleans at the end of 2023.