Dorian Finney-Smith hobbled around, the ankle problems that kept him off the court in the Lakers’ losses to Brooklyn and Denver, obvious. Still, he fought with Kevin Durant and helped push the Phoenix star into missing eight of his first nine shots.
Jordan Goodwin hadn’t started consecutive games this season, nevertheless consecutive games for a team with NBA title hopes, and here he was Sunday, harassing Devin Booker. He opened the game with a tip-in and finished it by extending a possession with another hustle play.
And Jaxson Hayes, a former lottery pick given up on by the team that drafted him and by most of the league, feasted at the rim and ran in and out of defensive switches, the Lakers quickly reestablishing their defensive intensity after a four-game road trip where they never totally made it off the plane.
Even though they didn’t have LeBron James and Rui Hachimura in their starting lineup, Hayes’ return and Finney-Smith’s and Goodwin’s defense made the Lakers look more like the team that had won eight straight and not the one that just dropped four in a row on the road.
Healthy or not, that’s who the Lakers need to be.
Playing their first of five home games this week, the Lakers recaptured their identity largely thanks to their role players, the team clamping down on the Suns during a 107-96 win.
None of this is to say the Lakers’ healthy stars weren’t terrific — they were.
One game after he nearly willed the Lakers to a win in Denver, Austin Reaves scored 28 to go with six assists and four rebounds. He hit a three over rookie Oso Ighodaro and drew a foul, Durant slumping back into his seat on the Suns’ bench. He drove past Booker, absorbed the contact and scored, flexing at the Lakers’ bench.
And Luka Doncic, who didn’t play in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back set, scored 33 points to go with 11 rebounds and eight assists — his fifth game in the past six where he scored at least 30.
The Lakers play again Monday night against San Antonio.
