The Lakers’ five-game win streak was halted in a blowout 122-102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
Luka Dončić ended with 22 points, five rebounds and 11 assists but shot 7-17 from the field. Jake LaRavia had 13 points with five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Deandre Ayton pitched 11 points with five rebounds. Rui Hachimura scored eight points.
A number of Lakers got some stats in garbage time. Dalton Knecht finished with 14, Jarred Vanderbilt had 12 points and 18 rebounds and Bronny James finished with nine points on 4-6 shooting.
The game opened with a Lakers turnover that led to an easy layup for Zaccharie Risacher on the other end, a good bit of foreshadowing. Los Angeles had a slow start, shooting just 44% from the field early on. Mouhamed Gueye was cooking for Atlanta with 11 points.
Hachimura had five of Los Angeles’ first 12 points. LA’s struggled defending in the paint with the Hawks already scoring 14 points. Atlanta went up by double figures at the five-minute mark.
Despite the shooting and defensive woes, the purple and gold were able to cut a 13-point deficit to eight at the end of the first.
The second period began with the Hawks quickly extending their lead to 11. Bronny James started this quarter with a jumper in the paint. Things went from bad to worse as Los Angeles’ defense remained nowhere to be found.
Atlanta’s Asa Newell was up to nine points. The Lakers could not find a single ounce of defense to stop the offensive onslaught the Hawks were pouring on. They had put up 55 points with 4:28 left until halftime.
Luka drained a much-needed 3-pointer to make it a 12-point deficit. He had 22 points and was the only Laker in double figures. LA only had four bench points, while Atlanta had 26.
Everything ended badly in this half for Los Angeles as they went down by 14 at halftime.
The Lakers showed signs of life to start the third period as Ayton and LaRavia scored a combined four points. They had cut the deficit down to nine points, but once again, the defense was nowhere to be found, leading to a 7-0 Hawks scoring run to put them back up by double figures.
A pair of 3-pointers put Atlanta up by 20 at the 7:20 mark. Los Angeles could not find any sort of offensive consistency or defensive presence, resulting in the lead ballooning to 26 at the end of the third.
Atlanta knocked down two more 3-pointers to start the final frame. They were shooting 45% from behind the arc, while LA was shooting 37%. The game was so bad that Luka’s night was over with just 22 points in 27 minutes.
The rest of the quarter was cardio.
This was the first trap game of the season, and the Lakers completely fell headfirst into it.
Allowing the Hawks to score 68 in the first half, which was a season high for them, was a recipe for disaster.
10 turnovers in the first half is not how you want a half to go.
The Lakers’ next matchup is Monday against the Charlotte Hornets at 4:00 PM PT.
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