The Los Angeles Lakers went on the road to play the Phoenix Suns on Sunday afternoon. It was the fifth and final time this regular season that the two teams played in the same division.

Every time these two teams have played, one of them was missing a key player. Despite that, the Suns beat the Lakers 123–113 to win a game that mattered for the playoffs.

At the start of the game, Devin Booker and the Suns were on fire. They took an early 13–7 lead before LeBron James turned up the heat for the Lakers on the road.

But Anthony Davis got two early fouls, so he went to the bench. This let Phoenix score some easy points. As James was the only Laker to make an offensive play, they took their first double-digit lead, which made Darvin Ham call a timeout.

The Suns kept going strong after the break, with Royce O’Neale making a deep shot and then Booker getting fouled on a 3-point try. After a terrible first quarter, the Lakers were behind 45–28 after Grayson Allen made a 3 that beat the buzzer.

The Lakers came out of the break with a lot more fire. They went on a 7-0 run, with D’Angelo Russell scoring five of those points. This made Frank Vogel call a quick timeout.

During the timeout, O’Neale made another three-pointer on a second chance, but the Lakers were having trouble stopping the ball on the defense glass. However, Taurean Prince made back-to-back 3s, cutting L.A.’s lead back to ten points.

Russell scored 18 points in the first half to keep things from getting out of hand for the Lakers, who were behind 72–63 at halftime.

The first half was pretty quiet until Austin Reaves made a three-pointer to start the third quarter. Durant answered right away with two threes of his own to start an 8-0 Suns run.

Despite this, the Lakers kept fighting. James led the way by making a three-pointer and a breakaway dunk that cut the gap to five points. Max Christie came in after not playing in the first half and scored and set up a three-pointer right away. L.A. was behind 95–90 going into the fourth quarter.

Phoenix went on a 9-2 run to start the fourth and build their lead back up to ten runs. Allen did most of the damage because he kept shooting well from deep to help his team keep its lead.

Davis finally got going on offense with back-to-back baskets that pulled the Lakers within six points with a few minutes left in the game.

O’Neale and Allen made some big threes that sealed the win for the Suns, though, as L.A. never got back on track and lost.