The Lakers have not been in good form recently, after winning the midseason championship, the Lakers lost two of three games, and helped the Spurs end their 18-game losing streak in the last game, ranking eighth in the West with 15 wins and 11 losses to return to the play-in zone, and they will also face the Knicks at home, thick eyebrows, Russell, Reddish also ushered in a comeback, the team urgently needs a win to boost morale, and the Knicks are fifth in the East with 14 wins and 11 losses, just lost to the Clippers in Los Angeles. The strength of both sides is evenly matched, and both hope to take away the victory.
Russell hit a three-pointer at the beginning, Brunson immediately responded with a three-pointer, Reddish flew to the basket, and the thick eyebrows licked the basket to give the Lakers a 7-3 lead. Randle scored under the basket, Brunson made a quick stop, thick eyebrows and Randle both hit both free throws, Barrett scored two points, James hit an empty basket, and the two sides tied again. Prince hit a three-pointer, Barrett hit both free throws, DiVincenzo hit a layup with a thick eyebrow, and Quickley hit a three-pointer to give the Knicks an 18-14 lead. Reaves hit a throw, Hachimura made a dunk under the basket, and the Lakers tied the score again. Brunson played 2+1, Randle scored under the basket, and then threw high and hit again, and the Knicks played a wave of 7-0. Reaves raised his hand and threw in a three-pointer, Hachimura made a steal and counterattacked to make it 2+1, and the Lakers chased it to 24-26. After the Knicks scored six straight points, Reaves hit a step-back three-pointer and Quickley hit a three-pointer just before the end of the first quarter to give his team a 35-27 lead. Quickley scored 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting and Randle had 10 points and seven rebounds on 4-of-8 shooting.
James scored strongly, Hayes dunked vigorously, and the Lakers chased it to 31-35. Randle hit a jumper, Quickley dunked, Reaves hit a high-speed layup, Randle scored hard, James fired from outside the three-point line, and the Lakers fell behind 36-41. Harden made 1 of two free throws, Brunson hit a 3-pointer and Hart made a layup to give the Knicks a 10-point lead. Prince hit a three-pointer, Barrett scored on a layup, Harden made one of two free throws, and Randle beat the Knicks to give the Knicks a 51-39 lead. Reaves hit a free throw, Prince hit a three-pointer, Brunson hit a jumper, Russell hit a three-pointer, Brunson hit a pick-and-roll basket, and the Knicks led 55-46. Thick eyebrows scored seven points in a row, Russell hit a three-pointer, and thick eyebrows hit a jumper with 0.1 seconds left, and the Lakers took a one-point lead to end the second quarter at 58-57. At halftime, Bush had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Reaves had 11 points. Randle had 16 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting, and Brunson had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
James scored five points in a row, DiVincenzo hit a three-pointer, thick eyebrows flew and dunked, Harten dunked vigorously, Barrett hit both free throws, Randle scored a basket, and the Knicks overtook 66-65. Reddish dunked, Brunson hit both free throws, thick eyebrows hit a mid-range shot, Barrett scored a layup after a confrontation, Randle scored an empty layup, and the Knicks led by three points. Thick eyebrows tossed and hit, Hatten made a dunk, thick eyebrows scored, Brunson hit a free throw, James scored a layup, and the two sides tied 75-75. Reaves hit a three-pointer, Brunson responded with a three-pointer, Hart flew for a layup, and Randle made a step-back jumper to give him a four-point lead. The Knicks went on an 8-0 run before the end of the third quarter, giving the Knicks a 10-point lead at 90-80. Thick eyebrows scored 10 points in a single section.
In the fourth quarter, Hachimura hit a three-pointer, Quickley scored two long points, James hit both free throws, and then made a layup to put the Lakers up to 87-92. Barrett hit both free throws, Reaves made a layup to make it 2+1, Brunson scored three points in the face of Reaves, Russell made one of two free throws, Harden grabbed an offensive rebound and made a basket, Brunson hit a throw, and the Knicks led by 10 points at 101-91. Thick eyebrows made a shot, Brunson hit an empty layup, thick eyebrows scored under the basket, James hit the inside to score, and then slashed Huashan, and the Lakers narrowed the gap to 4 points. Randle hit a three-point shot, thick eyebrows scored inside, Brunson scored inside, James made a layup, Randle scored a dunk, Reaves hit all three free throws, and the Lakers trailed by four points. Brunson made both free throws and scored two free throws against the defense with 14 seconds left. The Knicks made two free throws, Hart hit both free throws, and then missed a pass but Reaves missed a three-pointer, and the Knicks won the game 114-109.
Thick eyebrows scored 32 points and 14 rebounds on 14-of-22 shooting, James scored a triple-double, 10-of-23 shooting, 2-of-8 three-pointers scored 25+11+11, James scored two triple-doubles this season, but the team did not win. Reaves finished with 20 points, seven assists and four turnovers on 6-of-15 shooting. For the Knicks, Brunson scored 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting, Randle had 27 points and 14 rebounds on 12-of-22 shooting, Quickley scored 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting, Barrett scored 12 points and Harden had nine points and 17 rebounds, including seven rebounds.
In this game, the Lakers did their best but still suffered two consecutive defeats, the defense was full of holes, the whole team lost 13 rebounds, and let Harden grab 7 frontcourt rebounds alone, they also need to sum up, they lost three of the four games after the midseason championship, and the Thunder, who is currently second in the West, is only 3 wins away from the Suns, who are tenth in the West.