The Lakers were without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Marc Gasol in Brooklyn against the Nets, and none of it mattered.
Instead, Andre Drummond and Dennis Schroder led the way and the Lakers cruised to a 126-101blowout win.
Drummond finished 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting, and grabbed 11 rebounds in 22 minutes. Schroder scored 19 points in 20 minutes.
All this before Schroder was ejected for jawing with Kyrie Irving in the the third quarter. But Schroder proved to be the catalyst. After he was ejected the Lakers turned things up a notch and pulled away. Despite the ejection, Schroder appeared pretty pleased with the night overall.
“Today we were out here competing, making shots and, yeah, that’s the best win of the year I would say,” Schroder said.
Drummond was able to get his first win in a Lakers uniform. He has had a hell of a season so far. — from coming from a situation where you aren’t playing for a postseason run with the Cleveland Cavaliers, to now being on a Lakers team that just won it all. And the Lakers are clearly championship contenders again this year.
So Drummond is grateful and relishing his role as an impact player.
“I learned a lot from today’s game, that we have a lot of guys in this locker room that are very tough,” Drummond said. “Despite who’s on the other side of the court, they’re going to come out and play.”
Everyone else pitched in to the winning cause. Talen Horton-Tucker, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Markieff Morris scored 14 points apiece. Newcomer Ben McLemore was big-time off the bench with 17 points. McLemore hit five 3-pointers in the process. He was a big reason why the Lakers were able to open up a huge lead. Montrezl Harrell and Alfonzo McKinnie each scored 10 points off of the bench as well. Overall, just a solid performance by LA.
The next Lakers game is Monday in NYC at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks. Tip-off is at 7:30 pm Eastern/ 4:30 pm Pacific.
