They got their first win of the preseason on Monday night when they beat the Brooklyn Nets 129–126 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
When Austin Reaves played in his first practice game, he scored the team’s first basket right away with a pull-up three. The Nets reacted with a 7-0 run that put them ahead for a short time, but the Lakers and D’Angelo Russell scored threes to take back the lead.
Russell made a lot of shots from the field and confidently took threes. Rui Hachimura came in and scored five points right away to give Los Angeles a seven-point lead. And then the Nets went on their own run to end the quarter. The Lakers were behind 35–34 going into the second.
Anthony Davis started to make his impact known early in the second. He worked under the basket for a reverse layup and then blocked a shot in the paint. They played better on both ends of the court and got their first double-digit lead of the night.
Taurean Prince showed off some of his scoring skills by putting the ball on the deck. Jaxson Hayes then added his own lay-in to make the score 19–0. Brooklyn went on an 8-0 run near the end of the half, but Los Angeles was hitting so well from deep that they went into the break ahead 75–61.
The games for James, Davis, and Russell were over. For the third quarter, Darvin Ham chose to start Christian Wood, Gabe Vincent, and Hachimura. Because they didn’t have their best scorers, the Lakers let the Nets slowly tie the game at 82-82.
In the middle of the quarter, Cam Thomas and Reaves swapped baskets. However, L.A. took back the lead with some more strong long-range shooting. Late in the third quarter, Wood decided to take things into his own hands by calling his own number offensively. The purple and gold went into the fourth quarter ahead 110-102.
As the Lakers’ defense got stronger, they were able to stay ahead even with their whole bench on the court. Even though they played well enough to keep a 120–112 lead, Ham moved his bench lower and let the kids play.
In bad news, the newbies started to struggle from the field. However, Maxwell Lewis did make a flashy dunk that got the crowd in Las Vegas cheering. In the last few minutes, the game went back and forth, but Los Angeles was able to hold on and win.
