The Los Angeles Lakers got their road trip back on track with a 128-100 win over the Charlotte Hornets at the Spectrum Center on Saturday behind monster nights from Lonzo Ball and LeBron James.
James and Ball became the first Lakers teammates with triple-doubles in the same game since 1982, when Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it. Not bad company to be in.
Best of all, they did it with Michael Jordan watching.
Ball has been, to put it kindly, wildly inconsistent this season, but on the nights that he’s locked in, he looks like one of the most promising young point guards in the league. On Saturday, he was locked in.
In 34 minutes against the Hornets, Ball puts up 16 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 5 steals, giving him his first triple-double of the season and his third in his career. He was all over the place on both ends of the floor.
It’s unrealistic to expect this type of play from Ball every night, but it’s encouraging to see he has that in him. Hopefully these games become less spaced out as time passes.
LeBron James was also a big positive for the Lakers on Saturday, but if we’re being real, when isn’t he?
James was getting anything he wanted in Charlotte, scoring 24 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 11 assists for just his second triple-double of the season.
JaVale McGee had his flu game against Michael Jordan’s team and unlike Jordan’s, his was real. McGee almost didn’t play on Saturday because he was showing flu-like symptoms, but he looked perfectly healthy once he stepped on the court, scoring 19 points and swatting away 3 shots.
McGee was just one point shy of his fourth 20-point game of the regular season. His career-high is six.
It was an impressive all-around performance from the Lakers and because they won by such a large margin, they’ll go into Sunday’s game against the Wizards well-rested. We’ll see you then.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Christian on Twitter at @RadRivas.