PHOENIX \u2014 A late surge wasn\u2019t enough. And the inconsistent energy continues to disrupt the Lakers’ rhythm, showing just so in the desert.<\/p>\n
Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and the late surge from the Lakers nearly dragged them all the way back from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit, but Royce O\u2019Neale\u2019s go-ahead 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left sealed a 113-110 loss on Thursday at the Mortgage Matchup Center.<\/p>\n
The Lakers executed a perfect play with the 0.9 seconds they had left but couldn’t get the shot to fall. A sharp elevator screen got Austin Reaves free for a clean corner look, but the shot rimmed out at the buzzer, giving the Lakers their third straight loss.<\/p>\n
“Tonight was a one-possession clutch game. Now, we’ve lost a few of those, but we’ve been great for the most part in the clutch all year,” coach JJ Redick said on the loss.<\/p>\n
Reaves had tied the game at 108 a little before with a minute left with a clutch 3. The Lakers’ climb was catapulted by two big-time 3s from Don\u010di\u0107\u2014hitting six 3s on the night\u2014and an all-around effort from the rest of the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even LeBron James’ effort helped the Lakers climb, cleaning up a missed Marcus Smart layup on the possession before O’Neale’s big 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 finished with a game-high 41 points on 12 of 21 shooting with eight rebounds and eight assists. James finished with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists.<\/p>\n
The Suns outhustled and outworked the Lakers throughout the game to make up for the absence of two of their most productive players, Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks.<\/p>\n
Where They Stand<\/p>\n
The Lakers drop to 34-24 and are slowly pushing themselves closer down to the play-in spot. They still sit at No. 6 in the Western Conference but are one game away from being dropped to seventh, where the Suns stand.<\/p>\n
The Lakers have lost five of their last seven games.<\/p>\n
The Game-Changer: Suns burning 3s and Hustle<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just O\u2019Neale\u2019s final shot.<\/p>\n
The damage started earlier when Phoenix built separation with perimeter shooting; the Lakers were never fully contained. The Suns knocked down 22 3-pointers \u2014double the Lakers\u2019 total\u2014 on 44% shooting, hitting open shots from deep when they needed them most.<\/p>\n
The Suns effort also helped them snag 15 offensive rebounds on the night, which led to 14 second-chance points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gamebreaker: Collin Gillespie<\/p>\n
Although Grayson Allen could have easily been the game’s \u201cgamebreaker,\u201d with a team-high 28 points off the bench, Gillespie gets the award for the game, as he poured in four of his six 3s in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Gillespie hit his biggest 3 of the night down the stretch after Don\u010di\u0107 hit his second straight 3 to inch the Lakers closer, getting the Slovenian to bite in the air on a mean pump fake to give the Suns a five-point lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gillespie finished with 21 points in 31 minutes. Allen also had six 3s on the night.<\/p>\n
Next On The Schedule<\/p>\n
The Lakers head to San Francisco for the first time this season at Chase Center in their third matchup against the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n
Then L.A. will play seven of its following eight games at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 A late surge wasn\u2019t enough. And the inconsistent energy continues to disrupt the Lakers’ rhythm, showing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1013,7,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,6,67,4536],"class_list":{"0":"post-627707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-lakers","12":"tag-lakers","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-lebron-james","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangeleslakers","19":"tag-luka-doncic","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-tst-los-angeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116141260717595713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}