The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Charlotte Hornets 124–118 on Monday night, their third straight win. D’Angelo Russell scored 28 points, and Anthony Davis had 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 11 assists, giving him his third career triple-double.
LeBron James scored 26 points to help the Lakers (27-25) finish 4-2 on the road trip and get some much-needed momentum before the All-Star break.
The Hornets lost their eighth straight game since trading Terry Rozier to Miami. Miles Bridges scored a career-high 41 points, and youngster Brandon Miller scored 33 points with five 3-pointers.
The Lakers led 74–58 at halftime thanks to Russell’s 22 points and James’ 17 points. They shot 64% from the field in the first half.
In the first half, James had a few highlights, like getting past P.J. Washington and dunk over center Nick Richards, who is 7 feet tall. James drove the sideline again and jammed Anthony Davis with both hands while the ball was flying. He also set up Davis for an alley-oop dunk.
The Lakers gave out 36 assists.
Late in the third quarter, Christian Wood made a three-pointer and then dunked on an Austin Reaves pass, giving Los Angeles a 21-point lead.
But Miller scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, putting the Hornets behind by a game. With about two minutes left, the No. 2 pick in the draft picked off a pass from Reaves and dunked it across the court. He then made back-to-back three-pointers to cut the Lakers’ lead to four.
Charlotte could have tied the game with a three-point shot by Bridges, but Davis tipped it, and Reaves made two free throws to make it 6-0 and seal the win.
Bridges made five 3s and made 16 of 26 shots from the field.