The Lakers didn’t need Luka Doncic to take care of business in Monday night’s win over the Wizards as he served his one-game suspension because of an accumulation of technical fouls
But they needed every bit of the MVP-caliber play carried into Tuesday night to blow out the Cavaliers 127-113 at Crypto.com Arena.
Doncic got off to another one of his signature hot starts to keep the Lakers afloat in the midst of the Cavaliers’ hot start on the second night of a back-to-back for both teams, with the 27-year-old Slovenian guard having 14 points and 4 assists in the first quarter to help the Lakers only trail by two after the first period.
From there, Doncic and the Lakers blitzed the Cavaliers, who blew out the Lakers in similar fashion two months ago in Cleveland.
Doncic led the Lakers with a 42-point, 12-assist double-double in 34 minutes, to go with 5 rebounds, continuing his career-best steak of scoring at least 30 points (13 games).
The Lakers outscored the Cavaliers 78-49 in the middle two quarters, giving them a 110-83 lead going into the final quarter.
The Cavaliers’ all-bench lineup to start the fourth made it a closer game than it was during the competitive portions.
Austin Reaves recorded 19 points (6-of-16 shooting), 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, while Deandre Ayton added 18 points and 9 rebounds (six offensive rebounds).
LeBron James had 14 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds during a game he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most combined regular-season and playoff wins, moving to 1,229.
Jake LaRavia added 14 points (5-of-5 shooting) and 7 rebounds, while Rui Hachimura scored 14 points, surpassing 5,000 career points.
What it means
The Lakers already clinched a playoff spot before beating the Cavaliers thanks to the Suns’ loss to the Magic, but the victory gave them their 50th win of the season.
They went 15-2 in March, and have won 16 of their last 18 games.
Turning point
When Reaves threw an alley-oop to James at the 7:43 mark of the third quarter in transition.
The Lakers were already up 78-63 before the highlight play, but the Cavaliers were sticking around.
They closed out the third quarter 30-20 from there.
MVP: Luka Doncic
With his 42nd point on Tuesday, Doncic reached 600 points in the month of March.
He’s just the second player in NBA history to reach the 600-point mark in March, joining Michael Jordan (March 1987), and is one of only 10 players ever to record a 600-point month.
Stat of the game: 15,000
Doncic surpassed 15,000 career points on Tuesday, becoming the third-youngest player in NBA history to hit the milestone.
Only James (25 years, 79 days) and Kevin Durant (26 years, 78 days) were younger than Doncic (27 years, 31 days) when they reached 15,000 career points.
Up next
The Lakers will head back on the road to play the defending NBA champions, the Thunder, on Thursday.
They’ll close out the trip against the Mavericks on Sunday.
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