With the joy of two consecutive wins, the Lakers embarked on another road trip, this time against the lone rangers coached by their old friend Kidd, who were all too familiar. On the Lone Rangers side, Doncic continues to be absent, while the Lakers have three players, Munch, Howard and Tucker, who are absent due to safety agreements. In the first quarter of the game, the Lone Rangers took the lead in entering the rhythm, but their three-point shots were delayed in finding form, giving the Lakers more time to enter the rhythm of the game. Davis, who returned from injury in this game, was not in good shape, but both James and Westbrook played efficiently. With Tucker unable to play, Bazemore returned to the regular rotation after multiple games. At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led by ten points with the climax of the offensive climax at the end of the quarter. In the second quarter, the Lakers put on a small lineup, but the Lone Ranger's Porzingis seemed to be the answer to Vogel's style of play, he played a dominant performance at both ends of the attack and defense, and the Lone Ranger also used a wave of small climaxes to overtake the score. The Lakers' missteps were still their big problem, with ten mistakes in the middle of the second quarter. Fortunately, the Lone Rangers' outside feel is really bad, and they have not been able to pull the score apart. The Lakers only scored 14 points in the second quarter, and losing 13 points in a single quarter buried the accumulated advantage in the first quarter. In the half, the Lakers trailed by three points 47:50.
Yi Bian fought again, and the Lone Rangers' Bronson continued to score in the second quarter. For the Lakers, Westbrook played a number of conversion offenses to help the team tighten the score. Anthony Davis' offensive feel pulled back slightly in the third quarter, and James hit an impressive three-pointer. At the end of the third quarter, the Lakers equalized on aggregate, and the two sides entered the fourth quarter 73-73. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Lone Ranger played a 7-0 wave with excellent coordination to pull the score apart. Subsequently, James turned on the "full strength" mode, and the scoring organization picked up the score to close. In the final moments of the fourth quarter, the Lakers trailed by three points, and Ellington pushed the Lakers to the edge of the cliff with two empty three-point misses. Dramatically, in the lakers' final offense in regular time, Ellington picked up an offensive rebound and hit a three-pointer in the bottom corner to drag the game into overtime.
After overtime began, the Lakers stagnated on the offensive end, relying only on Davis's difficult backs to score two points, the Lone Rangers played an efficient conversion to extend the score advantage to three points, and Vogel called a halt again. After the timeout came back, the Lakers Big Three played the line several times to take a one-point lead at the end of the game with one minute left. In the final minute of overtime, the Lakers twice extended their lead to three points, but the Lone Rangers tied the score with two difficult three-pointers. Unexpectedly, the Lakers' final attack was completed by rookie Rivers. The final score was 107:104, and the Lakers won three consecutive games.
After this game, the Lakers further extended their winning advantage over the Nuggets and The Lone Rangers, ranking sixth in the West. It is worth mentioning that the three consecutive wins in this game are the Lakers' first three-game winning streak since November 2, and the second time this season. Although the Lakers have gradually found a sense of play since late November, the unstable characteristics of the state have not been able to find a solution, and they have not been able to achieve more than two consecutive wins. In fact, since the end of the three-game losing streak on November 19, the Lakers have achieved a good record of 8 wins and 4 losses in 12 games. In this game, although the shooting feel is average, the Lakers have repeatedly shown a mature defensive system and the potential to change the game situation in the scorching moments of the game. Although the Lone Rangers have repeatedly approached the score and even reversed, the Lakers have never given up hope, biting the score back again and again until it is exceeded.
The brightest star of the game was not James, who scored 24 points, nor Davis, who scored a quasi-triple-double or a big double-double, but a rookie Rivers who hit five three-pointers, including the final quasi-kill. After returning from injury, Rivers was briefly lost in limited playing time, scoring just five points in four games. As the saying goes, opportunity never fails the hard-working. With two outside regular rotation injuries to Tucker and Munch, Rivers had the longest playing time of his career. In his 32-minute game, he had 15 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one steal on five-of-six shooting from three-point range. Despite his lack of physical resistance, Rivers has shown a defensive ability beyond Tucker's head and the ability to handle the ball calmly. Before this game, Tucker was caught up in trading rumors, and perhaps the excellent performance of Rivers in this game could make the Lakers more determined to explore Tucker-related possibilities in the trading market.