Austin Reaves scored a career-high 38 points, LeBron James added 29 points with eight assists, and the Los Angeles Lakers overcame the absence of Anthony Davis to earn a 102-101 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Friday.
Gabe Vincent scored 10 points off the bench as the Lakers improved to 2-1 in a stretch of six consecutive games in the Los Angeles area, with five of those at home.
Davis sat out with plantar fasciitis, missing his third game of the season and second this month. Jaxson Hayes started for Davis and had nine rebounds with six points.
D’Angelo Russell scored 19 points off the bench against his former team as the Nets dropped to 1-4 on a six-game road trip that ends Sunday at Oklahoma City. Russell was traded from the Lakers to the Nets on Dec. 29.
Ziaire Williams and Tosan Evbuomwan each scored 15 points for Brooklyn, which fell to 2-10 since Dec. 27 and entered off a 126-67 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.
In a back-and-forth second half, Rui Hachimura completed a three-point play to give the Lakers an 85-83 lead with 7:27 remaining and Los Angeles never trailed again. Reaves scored 15 fourth-quarter points, including 10 of the Lakers’ 12 in one stretch, the last of which was a 3-pointer for a 100-92 lead with 3:45 remaining.
Brooklyn pulled within 102-101 with 37 seconds to play on a 3-pointer from Noah Clowney. After a missed jumper from Reaves, Russell missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer with three seconds left. The Nets were 9 of 14 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers took a 51-45 lead at halftime, in part by forcing 12 first-half turnovers. Los Angeles shot just 44.2 percent in the opening half, while Brooklyn shot 47.2 percent.
Trey Jemison III, who signed a two-way contract Wednesday, made his Lakers debut and grabbed four rebounds in 15 minutes.
The Nets’ Cameron Johnson was out for the seventh time in the past eight games with a right ankle sprain, while Cam Thomas missed his eighth consecutive game with a hamstring strain.
–Field Level Media
