After the Knicks won their ninth straight game, the Los Angeles Lakers beat them 113–105 on Saturday night. LeBron James scored 24 points, and the Lakers pulled away in the last few minutes.

The Lakers won their second straight game to get above 500 (26-25). Austin Reaves scored 22 points, D’Angelo Russell scored 16, and Taurean Prince scored 16. Anthony Davis had 12 points and 18 boards.

Lakers coach Darvin Ham said, “We’re just trying to get to a place where we’re playing the kind of basketball we wanted to play.” “The level of basketball we know we can play and defend at a very high level.” That will give you a chance every night. We have enough power in our starting group and in the players who come off the bench to score points.

New York’s Jalen Brunson scored 36 points to lead the way (32-18), and Donte DiVincenzo had 26 points before getting fouled out. Achiuwa scored 10 points and Hart scored 12 points and grabbed 11 boards.

He said, “We didn’t make enough plays on both sides of the ball.” Say, “Give them credit.”

The game was close the whole time. The Knicks were ahead 86–80 after three quarters, but the Lakers scored the first seven points of the fourth to take the lead. New York had its last lead, 96–94, on DiVencenzo’s 3-pointer with 7:25 left. The game went back and forth.

He said, “At the start of the fourth, we’re up six.” “There was a big turnover, and they scored three in the next play.” They picked up speed, which changed the game right then.

Following Prince’s three-point play, 19 seconds later, Los Angeles went on an 11-0 run that won the game. James’ fadeaway shot with 1:54 left gave Los Angeles a 105-96 lead.

Prince and Reaves scored 16 of Los Angeles’s first 20 points in the fourth quarter together.

“That’s what we need,” Ham said about Prince and Reaves’ reaction in the fourth quarter. “Our team is full of skilled attacking players. The more assertive and aggressive they are, and the more they deliver and make the most of their chances, the better it will be and the more endurance we’ll have for LeBron and A.D.”

There were 39.1 seconds left when DiVincenzo made a pull-up shot that cut the lead to 105-98. Also, New York scored for the first time in almost seven minutes.

The Lakers went up 109–100 after Reaves made four free throws and Brunson made a layup. With 11.2 seconds left, Brunson made a three-point play to cut the lead to six points. In the last few seconds, Davis made four free throws around a layup by Brunson to seal the deal.

At Madison Square Garden, James was cheered when he came out for morning warmups. His two-handed dunk off of a Russell feed 3:12 into the game also got a lot of attention.

James said, “It’s the centre of basketball.” “This building has seen a lot of great players, teams, and events.” I’m just glad to be a part of it.