The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks and secured their fourth game in their winning streak by 130-114 on Friday night, led by forward Lebron James’ notable performance.
After recovering from illness, James scored 25 points and 10 assists in the game. His teammates also contributed greatly to the final score. The team’s efforts led to the Lakers victory against the Hawks in Friday’s game.
However, the victory came on the heels of several team members sitting out. James had suffered from a bad cold and was absent from the Laker’s impressive match against the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
Several others sat out Friday’s game due to injuries.
Despite their absence, the healthy members were able to take up the court, giving a positive atmosphere to the Los Angeles team.
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Game highlights
It seemed to be an easy win for the Lakers. In the first half of the storied rematch, the Lakers leapt to a 26-point lead, leaving the rest of the match to comfortably hang on their five out of six wins in the games.
Point guard Russell Westbrook gave the Lakers 18 points, nine assists, and 11 rebounds. Point guard Kendrick Nunn followed suit with 23 points, the highest score he’s achieved in his time with the remaining healthy Lakers.
Mike Trudell
2023-01-08 08:59
LAL head into halftime with a 70-49 lead, their biggest margin at the break this season. Lakers shot 56.9% to ATL’s 32.7%, hitting 4 more triples, and winning the fastbreak point battle 22-3.
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Point guard Dennis Schroder persisted with 21 points, while center Thomas Bryant took on 19 points and 13 rebounds for the team.
The last time the Lakers managed to win four straight games was on January 7, 2022, in a similar game against Atlanta.
Though the Lakers scored well, the Hawks had their share of moments. In the second half of the game, point guard Trae Young scored 21 points of the 32 points for the Hawks. Young later scored 17 points in the third quarter.
Despite the notable effort on Young’s part, it was not enough to cover the first half.
“We didn’t do a good job stopping the ball (or) protecting the paint.”
Nate Macmillan, Atlanta Hawks’ coach
“We had some fight in the second half, but just too deep of a hole,” Macmillan said.
Lakers overcome key players’ absence problem
While the Lakers’ victory was lax, they came onto the court missing many key players from injury or illness. Among those who sat out Friday’s match were Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker, Troy Brown, Damian Jones and Austin Reaves.
The most recently injured, Reaves, suffered a strained hamstring on his left leg before the start of the year. Reaves will be re-evaluated for his injury in two weeks.
Others haven’t been in rotation for some time. For instance, Jones sustained an injury on his toe and has not seen play since last Christmas. He is not likely to return by Saturday.
These absences have taken significant rotational players from the Lakers in their attempts to maintain their current quality performance.
Despite these challenges, Lakers coach Darvin Ham kept a positive outlook on the situation for the rest of the healthy Lakers.
“It’s motivating them to step their games up,” Ham said. “They know I’ll put anybody out there, and if they’re playing the right way, they’ll play a significant amount of minutes.”
Westbrook, who scored 18 points in the game, agreed with the coach.
“There are going to be times where guys go down, unfortunately, and we have a group of guys that have just been preparing themselves for when it’s their moment to play and play well,” Westbrook said. “Seems like we’ve been hitting a good stride of figuring that out.”
