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The Los Angeles Lakers thoroughly destroyed the Phoenix Suns for their second win in a row. It wasn’t L.A.’s sharpest game of the season, but a big night from a few members of the bench was enough to let the Lakers’ waltz to a 125-100 win.
Rajon Rondo doesn’t get a ton of praise on this website — or among Lakers fans in general — so it’s only fair to give him some after he did the basketball equivalent of saying “Darren Collison, who?” The veteran exploded for 15 points in the first half, at one point going on an 8-0 run by himself to give the Lakers the spark they needed to extend their lead. Like, seriously, he was good enough to lead to this tweet:
https://t.co/fEfyrl2eoW pic.twitter.com/EsZEQjEaFH
— zain fahimullah (@zain_gogh) February 11, 2020
He finished the night with 23 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds.
Perhaps not coincidentally given that Rondo played well, Kyle Kuzma also seemed to find a bit of a rhythm now that he had a strong point guard performance to help him get going. Kuzma continued his recent aggressiveness, which combined with a bit better shooting allowed him to put together a well-rounded 9-point, 8-rebound, 4-assist, 2-block and 1-steal performance. In addition to Rondo and Kuzma, the whole bench had a strong night, with the Lakers’ reserves outscoring their Suns counterparts 62-36.
And in what seems to be a nightly occurrence, LeBron James made a bit of history this evening, passing Michael Jordan for fifth all-time in made free throws. He finished with 17 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds, while Anthony Davis had another good game with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
This win moves the Lakers to 40-12 with just one game to go until a sorely needed All-Star Break. We’ll see if the Lakers can finish out the first half of the NBA schedule strong when they travel to Denver to face the Nuggets on Wednesday.
Listen to us talk about the game below, and for more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.