March 19 – D’Angelo Russell scored 27 points and LeBron James added 25, with both players contributing 10 assists, as the Los Angeles Lakers ended a two-game skid with a 136-105 victory over the visiting Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
Anthony Davis added 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers after he was questionable with an eye injury. Rui Hachimura scored 17 points and Austin Reaves added 12 as Los Angeles (37-32) recovered from consecutive defeats that had dropped it into the final play-in tournament spot in the Western Conference.
Jalen Johnson scored 25 points to go along with nine rebounds and Bogdan Bogdanovic added 17 points as the Hawks went 1-1 in consecutive games at Los Angeles after rolling past the Clippers on Sunday.
Dejounte Murray scored 13 points and dished out 10 assists and Onyeka Okongwu scored 11 points after missing the past 13 games with a sprained left big toe as the Hawks fell to 6-6 since leading scorer Trae Young has been out after finger surgery. Atlanta (30-38) is clinging to the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.
While Bogdanovic made his 200th 3-pointer to move into sixth on the Hawks’ all-time list for most threes in a single season, Russell’s six on Monday tied Nick Van Exel’s Lakers record of 183 treys set in 1994-95.
The Hawks got off to a fast start with an 11-2 lead, but the Lakers recovered quickly to lead 38-28 after one quarter and 73-59 at halftime. Los Angeles pushed its advantage to as many as 25 in the third quarter and took a 111-86 lead into the final period.
Davis did all of his damage in the first three quarters, sitting out the fourth with the game well in hand one game after his left eye was scratched. He played just one quarter of Saturday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Russell made a pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to put the Lakers up 122-88 with 9:46 remaining, and they cruised to the victory from there.
Johnson left the game for the Hawks with 6:47 remaining when he rolled his right ankle after stepping on the foot of teammate Clint Capela.
