Anthony Davis, Lakers start fast, hold off Hornets for 4th straight win

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Lakers have made it clear with their words and recent actions that they want to be a great team.

And for the first 12 minutes of their 112-107 victory over the lowly Charlotte Hornets on Monday night, they played like one.

Anthony Davis dominated early with a 21-point, 11-rebound first-quarter to go with a pair of blocked shots as the Lakers sprinted to a 29-6 lead.

“He put in two days of work,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Davis, who finished with 42 points and 23 rebounds. “Just just carried us all night. We moved him around. He played with force. His hands and touch and just the pursuit of the basketball and the offensive glass, all that stuff was just, was just awesome.”

Davis outscored and outrebounded the Hornets by himself in the opening quarter, with the Lakers’ smothering defense holding Charlotte to just 19 first-quarter points, allowing the Lakers to take a 20-point lead (39-19) into the second.

“That might be the most impressive quarter of basketball I’ve ever seen an individual play,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said. “I felt like we almost could have went and sat down and watched him do what he does. Miles Bridges on the court was talking about them needing to try to guard him some other way and I kind of just told him that there’s no really good way to guard A.D. He’s so versatile and the skill is through the roof. Makes tough shots, gets to the rim, gets fouled. It’s a tough thing to do.”

But the Lakers didn’t sustain the focus necessary to give themselves an easier night, squeaking out a narrow victory for their fourth consecutive win and sixth in their last seven games.

“We played hard for four quarters,” Redick said. “Now, it was not pretty, but we played hard for four quarters. We made a lot of mental errors. I don’t know if that’s coming off Saturday and the long flight yesterday and getting acclimated to East Coast time.

“Felt a little bit of brain fog less so than just like guys not playing. We just had a lot of mental errors. We had three timeouts in the first half that we didn’t run the correct play [after]. There was a lot of mental errors more so than just effort and talk and all that stuff.”

Davis shot 17 for 28 from the field and 8 for 10 from the free-throw line in the fifth 40-point, 20-rebound game of his career.

“I was just feeling good,” Davis said. “Teammates did a good job of setting me up, especially Austin [Reaves], in the pocket, the jumper, getting to the line, so I mean, all facets of the game [were] working.

“The entire team, not just me, the way we’ve been playing, moving the basketball and playing for each other, not caring who scored, as long as we score. Things have just opened up for me.”

After Charlotte pulled within six with 1:27 left, Dorian Finney-Smith drove the lane for a high-flying dunk over Bridges with 1:07 remaining, but the Lakers weren’t safe yet.

Bridges followed with a layup, and the Hornets cut their deficit to three points after Davis fouled Josh Green on a late 3-point attempt. Green made all three free throws to cut the Lakers’ lead to 110-107 with 13 seconds remaining.

Davis sealed the victory with a pair of free throws after the Hornets were forced to intentionally foul him.

“We didn’t come here to try to blow nobody out,” said Lakers star LeBron James, who had 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. “We came here to win the game. And we played hard from start to finish. They made a lot of 3s. But we did what we had to do to close out the game. So I feel like we got better.”

The Lakers improved to 28-16 overall and 10-12 on the road with a 2-0 start to their “Grammy” trip after Saturday’s victory over the Golden State Warriors.

Austin Reaves finished with 17 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. James had five of the Lakers’ 19 turnovers, and Davis added four.

The Lakers will continue their back-to-back set with a matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night.

“Man, we’re just trying to win [on Tuesday],” Finney-Smith said. “Just trying to keep it going. We’re trying to climb up the ladder, so we’re going to enjoy this game, but we’re going to try to get this win [on Tuesday].”

The Hornets (12-31) outscored the Lakers 88-73 over the final three quarters, which led to four Lakers starters logging at least 36 minutes. Charlotte made 14 of its 36 3-point attempts, but cooled off late, shooting 1 for 9 from deep in the fourth.

Miles Bridges had 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists to lead Charlotte. Josh Okogie added 19 points and four steals off of the bench.

Star guard LaMelo Ball (seven points in nine minutes) left the game in the second quarter after rolling his left ankle on Jarred Vanderbilt’s foot while backpedaling.

NOTE

Davis became just the second NBA player since 1996-97 to get at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in any quarter. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was the other, doing so in the fourth quarter of a February 2023 game against the Clippers. Davis shot 9 for 12 from the field in the first, when the Lakers made 14 of their first 16 shots.