Luke Doncic scored 35 points as the Los Angeles Lakers weathered some shaky moments in the fourth quarter, along with LeBron James sitting out, and recorded a wire-to-wire 110-97 victory over the visiting New York Knicks on Sunday.
James sat out with a bruised left elbow he sustained in Thursday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets when he absorbed contact from Nikola Jokic. The Lakers also said the 41-year-old missed the game due to left foot arthritis.
Combined with missing Friday’s win over the Pacers, it was the first time James had been out for consecutive games since the first 14 games of this season due to sciatica in his back and leg.
Without James, Doncic scored 14 points in the third quarter when the Lakers outscored the Knicks 34-20. He shot 11-for-25 overall and made two 3-pointers during a 20-8 run over the final seven-plus minutes of the third, which turned a 68-61 lead into an 88-69 advantage entering the fourth.
After taking a big lead into the fourth, the Lakers slumped for most of the quarter until the final minutes. They missed 10 straight shots until Doncic banked in a layup for a 104-91 lead with 2:34 left and the star guard capped the scoring with another 3 with 65 seconds left.
Austin Reaves added 25 and had a pair of key defensive plays against Jalen Brunson in the final minutes. Rui Hachimura started for James again and contributed 13, while reserve Luke Kennard chipped in 12 as the Lakers shot 43.2%, including 7-for-24 in the fourth.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Knicks with 25 points, including 11 in the fourth, to go along with 16 rebounds. Brunson added 24 points, six rebounds and seven assists, but shot 8 of 19 from the field and committed seven of New York’s 19 turnovers.
The Knicks shot 42.7% and were 8 of 34 from behind the arc after hitting 18 3s in their 12-point home win over the Lakers on Feb. 1.
Doncic scored 12 points in the opening quarter, which ended with the Lakers taking a 31-23 lead when Kennard sank a corner 3 with 13.9 seconds left. As Brunson rested, the Lakers opened a 45-33 lead on a 3 by Jarred Vanderbilt with 7:32 left in the half.
Following Vanderbilt’s 3, Los Angeles missed nine consecutive shots before Reaves beat the buzzer with an off-balance five-footer for a 54-49 lead at halftime. Los Angeles used a 12-2 run to build a 68-56 lead on a 3 by Reaves with 8:18 left in the third quarter and allowed the lead to shrink to seven on a basket by Hart less than a minute later before rallying again.
