The Los Angeles Lakers played the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, the second game of a back-to-back. The first game was against the Houston Rockets, and it was a blowout.

There were many interesting plots in this game, especially the one between D’Angelo Russell and Dejounte Murray since there have been trade reports recently. Also, star big man Anthony Davis wasn’t playing for the Lakers because he hurt his knee. They lost again, this time 138–122 to the Hawks.

The Lakers got off to a good start, even without Davis. LeBron James and Austin Reaves attacked the basket, giving their team an early 12–6 lead. After that, Murray got going and put his team ahead 20–18, which made the Lakers call a timeout.

From there, the Hawks kept going because the Lakers had trouble keeping the ball, which let Atlanta get out in motion. After one quarter, the Hawks were ahead 36–29 because only Reaves of the Lakers could score.

James’s passing helped the Lakers get their offense back on track at the start of the second. He found Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt for easy dunks. The Lakers had a lot of trouble with their outside shots, though, which let the Hawks slowly take the lead.

The Lakers were behind 67–56 at halftime, even though Reaves and James tried to get their team going with a big alley-oop. However, the Lakers were still having trouble getting stops and shooting from outside.

The Hawks went on a 6-0 run to start the third quarter and increase their lead, which made the Lakers quickly call a timeout.

The Lakers were 20 points behind, so something had to change quickly. James went on the attack to try to get his team back into the game. Russell finally got going with a three-point shot, but the Lakers weren’t playing defense, so the Hawks made them pay.

Late in the third, though, Rui Hachimura and Reaves made shots from deep to give the Lakers a chance to score. But it didn’t matter because the Hawks answered right away and were still ahead 103–88 at the end of the third.

At the start of the quarter, L.A. scored five straight points to cut the lead back to ten. Hachimura was doing his part because he scored for his team from all three levels.

But the Lakers never got past the first hurdle all night because the Hawks were ready for every run. Murray and Trae Young were the best in the backcourt, and they were able to lead their team to win.