Coming off an opening night loss, the Los Angeles Lakers were looking vulnerable, and it continued on Thursday against the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns were without Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, yet they were clearly the better team. They outrebounded and outhustled the Lakers, and they executed better in the halfcourt while the Lakers looked discombobulated.
Phoenix led by 12 at the end of both the first and third quarters, which represented its biggest lead, and Crypto.com Arena felt more like a crypt than a basketball arena.
Then the Lakers turned everything around.
It wasn’t pretty, but they did it the old-fashioned way — with grit, effort and hustle rather than Showtime. LeBron James and Anthony Davis led the way, and suddenly they were the ones who were doing the outhustling. Meanwhile, Phoenix shot 5-of-20 and committed nine turnovers in the fourth quarter. As a result, the Lakers chipped away and inched toward a 100-95 win.
The pundits and doubters may say this win proves nothing, but the Lakers proved they can defeat a quality team even when they aren’t playing well. They shot just 42.9% overall and 17.2% from 3-point range and committed 16 turnovers, but they had the edge in free-throw attempts, fast-break points and points in the paint, which is how they won games late last season en route to the Western Conference finals.
If Los Angeles consistently plays with the type of effort and intensity it had in the fourth quarter, it will go far this season.