The Utah Jazz got revenge with an old-fashioned beatdown of the Lakers on Wednesday night.
The Lakers‘ six-game winning streak ends with a defeat against the Utah Jazz, 131-119 Wednesday night.
LeBron James ended with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Luka Dončić had 16 points to go with four rebounds and four assists. Austin Reaves had a rough start to his offense and ended with 15 points to go with his 11 assists and five rebounds.
Rui Hachimura pitched in with 19 points and three rebounds. Dalton Knecht had 10 points going three for seven from behind the arc. Bronny James scored a fun nine points toward the end of the fourth.
As we’ve seen the past few games, Jaxson Hayes started things off with a dunk, on the assist from Austin. Luka dazzled the crowd by faking a pass and then sending the ball to Rui, who drained a 3-pointer.
L.A. had taken the lead, but Utah started breaking Los Angeles’ defense down for easy dunks in the paint to take the lead.
Luka drove to the basket for a layup, his first game points, after missing his first two 3-pointers. The Jazz played with much more of a spring in their step compared to the previous meeting between both teams.
Luka knocked down one of his signature step-back 3-pointers. Then the newest Laker, Alex Len, had his first dunk attempt blocked by Walker Kessler. After all the trade hoopla, Dalton made his Laker return by draining a 3-pointer.
At the end of the first, Utah was up by three.
Luka’s face after that signature step-back pic.twitter.com/7QN3brPXbF
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 13, 2025
Utah began the second quarter, extending their lead by four. LeBron then knocked down one of his fadeaway shots. Austin missed his fifth attempt from behind the arc. He finally scored some points when he stole the ball and took it to the basket on a fastbreak for a dunk.
Luka checked back in and immediately scored on an easy layup. Both teams were shooting 40% from the field.
The Jazz were on a four-minute scoring drought until Lauri Markkanen drained a 3-pointer. Utah jumped ahead on an 8-0 run until Luka momentarily stopped it by converting on a three-point play.
L.A. was desperate for some points and Luka answered with a 3-pointer, but it didn’t matter as the Lakers as a team looked completely out of sync. LeBron scored six quick points. Rui then scored five points.
Just as it seemed like the Lakers started gaining momentum, Utah’s Keyonte George drained a three. The Jazz were up eight at halftime.
The Lakers got 3 late made 3’s (two from LeBron, one from Hachimura) and a dunk from Hachimura to trim what had grown to an 11-point deficit to 5, before Utah got a 3 just ahead of the buzzer to take a 64-56 lead into the half.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) February 13, 2025
Isaiah Collier started the second half by driving to the basket for a layup and Luka struck back with a 3-pointer. Lauri’s offense was still cooking with another 3-pointer. Jaxson suffered a facial contusion and would be out for the remainder of the game, which meant Alex would have a bigger role in this half.
L.A. would need to tighten up their defense and start scoring more consistently if they want to get this win. The Jazz were destroying the Lakers on the boards with 40 rebounds to 30. Utah went on an 11-0 scoring run to give themselves more cushion on their lead.
The rest of the third quarter happened and the Jazz were up big entering the final frame. L.A. began the fourth trying to mount a comeback, but they weren’t successful and the white flag was waved with under eight minutes left in the game.
Key Takeaways:
We now enter the All-Star break, so get some rest, everybody and let’s regroup in the second half of the season with no turnovers, great defense, and zero missed shots.
The Lakers’ next game will be after the All-Star break on Wednesday, February 19th, against the Charlotte Hornets at 7:00 PM PT.
You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.