(Basketball news) The Los Angeles Lakers got back to winning ways as they comfortably beat the Orlando Magic 111-105. For the Lakers, Austin Reaves scored a career-high 35 points, D’Angelo Russell added 18 points as Anthony Davis had 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Lakers entered this game off back-to-back losses to Houston and Dallas, imperiling their tenuous position in the playoff race as this win puts Los Angeles (35-37) back in ninth in the Western Conference, tied with Minnesota.
For the Magic, Rookie Paolo Banchero scored 21 points as Franz Wagner also scored 21 points while Wendell Carter Jr. had 16 points and 11 rebounds. Orlando couldn’t repeat the dominance of its 39-point fourth quarter in a victory over the Clippers one day earlier in the same arena.
“For them to recognize what I do – obviously I’m not an MVP-caliber player, those guys are really good – but for them to do that is special,” Reaves said. “It means a lot to me.”
“I thought it was (Reaves) being his normal self,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “What he’s been all year. Coming up in clutch moments for us, trying to make plays downhill, putting the defense in uncomfortable situations with his ability to attack the paint and draw fouls. He was great. He ended up with 35, and we needed all of them.”
“It just puts you in a hard situation when they’re calling it like that,” Banchero said. “You want to defend without fouling, but we keep getting called. We keep fouling, I guess. We keep getting foul calls against us, so it just makes it hard, but we still had a chance to win. You can’t blame it all on that.”
“It’s difficult, because I think we’re an aggressive, attacking team,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We’ve got to just, I guess, continue to do a better job of defending without fouling, show our help early and earn the respect of being able to get those calls.”
The Denver Nuggets also got back to winning ways as they beat the Brooklyn Nets 108-102. For the Nuggets, ) Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in his 28th triple-double of the season, Michael Porter Jr. had 28 points and nine rebounds as Jamal Murray scored 20 of his 25 points in the first quarter. For the Nets, Mikal Bridges scored 23 points and Nic Claxton had 19, who have lost three straight as they try to hold onto a top-six seed and a guaranteed postseason spot in the Eastern Conference.
“Obviously we were 1-5 in our last six, not playing up to our abilities, so just to get the win is the thing I’m most proud of,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
“Came out strong, came out aggressively and we did a good job for the most part of holding the lead and just keeping them at bay,” Murray said.
“There were some opportunities. We had good looks to shave the lead a little bit, just didn’t go in for us tonight,” coach Jacque Vaughn said.
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