Less than a week before the All-Star break and the Los Angeles Lakers bounce back from a surprisingly close win vs. the Golden State Warriors with a blowout win at home against the Phoenix Suns a couple of days later.
Six Lakers scored in double figures as the Lakers improve to 3-0 against the Suns in the season series with a game remaining on the final day of the regular season.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the Lakers' penultimate game before the All-Star Weekend:
LeBron struggles but AD shines in big Lakers win
Although for the second straight game, James nearly recorded a triple-double but he has struggled as well.
In both games, he had uncharacteristically bad shooting games and turned the ball over seven or more times. After scoring 22 points on 7-of-17 shooting and turning the ball over 7 times against the Warriors, he scored 17 on 6-of-16 shooting from the field in this game and committed eight turnovers.
However, Anthony Davis then picked up the slack. In 30 minutes, he recorded 25 points (9-17 FGs), 10 rebounds, and five assists to put the Lakers' reserves in a position to wrap things up.
Them: Stop that man.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 11, 2020
Us: You can’t. pic.twitter.com/qE6uJVsNOv
Lakers' bench has big night
Only four reserves played more than five minutes and all of them had a big game in this one. Rajon Rondo was the pick of them, finishing with a season-high 23 points (9-13 FGs) and six assists.
"He [Rondo] was terrific tonight," Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said on Rondo in the postgame press conference. "
🎥 Frank Vogel dicusses his rotation and Rondo's big impact off the bench tonight. pic.twitter.com/6whS22PL0u
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 11, 2020
Dwight Howard recorded a double-double of 14 points and 15 rebounds in 25 minutes on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field. Kyle Kuzma did a little bit everything, recording nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.
And last but not least Kentavious Caldwell-Pope finished with an efficient 13 (4-7 FGs).
Lakers dominate across the board
Across the league, the Lakers are among the leaders in scoring - in the paint (53.4; 2nd), transition (18.8; 2nd), off turnovers (18.8; 3rd); and on second chances (15.; 1st).
In this game, the hosts dominated in two of these categories. They outscored the Suns in the paint by 20 (58-38) and outscored them on second-chance points by 19 (23-4).
The Lakers also outplayed the Suns on the glass, outrebounding them by a huge margin of 30 (59-29).
