SALT LAKE CITY — From a player-availability standpoint, the Lakers’ four-game trip didn’t get off to a great start. They were without four rotation players – including a starter – on Sunday night against the Utah Jazz.
But the Lakers nearly got the most they could out of the players available on Sunday, leading to a 105-104 victory at Delta Center.
Anthony Davis (game-high 33 points,11 rebounds) and LeBron James (27 points, 14 assists, five rebounds, two blocked shots) played at their typical high levels.
But it was the role players stepping up that helped get the Lakers over the hump, putting them at 12-8 on the season.
“This was a great win,” coach JJ Redick said. “I’m just impressed with our group. I thought our bench – whether it was Max Christie or the minutes Armel [Traoré] played or the minutes Christian [Koloko] played, the minutes Jalen [Hood-Schifino] played – they all did really well with their minutes and gave us a chance to win the game.”
Gabe Vincent, starting in place of Austin Reaves (left pelvic contusion) had his most productive offensive game since signing with the Lakers last summer, scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go with three rebounds and two assists. Sunday was Vincent’s first double-digit scoring outing in his 30 regular-season games as a Laker.
“I was just trying to make the right reads on the floor, whether it was the screen or the pass or the cut or the shoot,” Vincent said. “Just trying to impact the winning the best way I could.”
Christie lived at the free-throw line, scoring eight of his 12 points at the charity stripe on a night the Lakers had a 20-10 made free-throws advantage. His eight made free throws and 10 attempts were both career-highs.
“I was just being aggressive. to be honest,” Christie said. “We got guys that were out today and I wanted to kind of take a step up offensively a little bit and I think it’s a good process to step forward for me is my aggression and 10 free throws is like you said, a career-high for me so that’s good for me.”
Rui Hachimura (13 points, seven rebounds, three offensive rebounds and two steals) came up with multiple big non-scoring plays late. Hood-Schifino, the Lakers’ 2023 first-round pick who played in just his second NBA game this season, got a key defensive stop and made a pair of free throws late in the third to give the Lakers an 86-81 lead going into the fourth.
And when the Lakers needed a jolt of offense as part of a 19-point fourth quarter, they leaned on the James-Davis pick-and-roll to so-so success.
James assisted Davis on a midrange jumper to put the Lakers up 103-99 with just under two minutes remaining. James made a layup over a minute later to keep the Lakers in front, 105-102.
But the Lakers also shot just 8 of 23 in the fourth (34.8%), including 5-of-14 shooting from James during a quarter that featured several possessions stall out until late in the shot clock.
“Some of it is just the nature of having D-Lo and Austin out of the lineup,” Redick explained of the Lakers’ late-game “hero ball”. “And just feeling like as a staff, we said, ‘LeBron and AD should shoot 25 or more times .’ We accomplished that goal. That was going to be our best offense.”
After a James missed 3-pointer, Walker Kessler (13 points, 11 rebounds) collared a defensive rebound and Collin Sexton (15 points, four assists) pushed the ball up the floor looking for a quick shot, with Jazz coach Will Hardy calling a timeout with 2.1 seconds left to draw up a play.
The timeout allowed for the Lakers to get their defense set, preventing the Jazz from getting a shot off before the final buzzer.
“We want to take away every everything,” Davis said of the final sequences. “And Collin got downhill and I was actually going for a block, but I heard the whistle. I stopped. He ended up making. I don’t know if he would’ve ended up making it. I probably would have blocked it. Maybe the coach saw something.
“But for us, especially when the timeout is not called, we have to lock in. We don’t get a chance to talk about what our coverage is. It helped us bring Christian into the game to be over the ball and then also just got some confusion it looked like from them where they couldn’t get the ball in. So it worked out in our favor.”
The Jazz (4-16) were led by Lauri Markkanen’s 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists. John Collins had 21 points, nine assists and three rebounds.
In addition to Reaves, the Lakers were also without D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish because of an illness. Backup center Jaxson Hayes remains sidelined because of a bruised/sprained right ankle. Christian Wood (offseason left knee surgery) and Jarred Vanderbilt (offseason right foot surgery recovery) have yet to make their season debuts. Bronny James (bruised left heel) was also sidelined.
The matchup against the Jazz was the first night of a back-to-back for the Lakers, who’ll play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday at Target Center as part of their four-game road trip.
They’ll wrap up the trip with matchups against the Miami Heat on Wednesday and the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.