NEW YORK — The Lakers are used to putting on a show when they’re at Madison Square Garden.
But for most of Sunday night, they watched a show they probably wouldn’t want reruns of: the Knicks beating them up on the offensive glass and creating a barrage of open 3-pointers.
The result was the Knicks’ burying 18 3-pointers, and the Lakers losing in New York 112-100 despite Luka Doncic’s near triple-double of 30 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.
LeBron James, who entered Sunday with the third-best winning percentage by a visiting player all-time at Madison Square Garden, recorded 22 points, six assists and five rebounds.
But the Lakers couldn’t match the Knicks’ 3-point proficiency, shooting 28.6% from beyond the arc compared to New York’s 42.9%.
The Knicks grabbed 15 offensive rebounds compared to the Lakers’ seven.
Sunday was the Lakers’ first loss at Madison Square Garden since 2021.
OG Anunoby scored a team-high 25 points for the Knicks to go with eight rebounds, while Josh Hart added 20 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had an 11 point-13 rebound double-double.
What it means
The Lakers, who dropped to 29-19, still have a chance to secure a winning record on the trip despite the loss to the Knicks, who are on a six-game winning streak after Sunday’s victory.
Despite the loss, the Lakers still have the third-best winning percentage among Western Confence teams with a 17-11 record in games away from Crypto.com Arena.
Turning point
After the Lakers had great ball security for most of Sunday, Doncic made an errant pass that was picked off by Towns and led to an Anunoby dunk in transition to tie the game at 77 at the 2:37 mark of the third quarter.
Gabe Vincent turned the ball over on the next possession, with Anunoby getting another dunk to put the Knicks up 79-77.
The Lakers had another empty possession when Rui Hachimura missed a corner 3, with Brunson assisting Landry Shamet on an alley-oop in transition for a Knicks’ 6-0 run that turned a Lakers two-point lead to a four-point New York advantage.
The Lakers trailed by eight entering the fourth, and trailed for the remainder of the game.
MVP: Jalen Brunson
Despite shooting 4-of-15 from the field, the Knicks star guard controlled the game with 13 assists, spraying out passes after getting into the Lakers’ defense.
He had nine assists in the second half, which the Knicks won 60-44.
Stat of the game: 2
That’s how many field goal attempts Deandre Ayton took after the first quarter after having nine points on 4-of-4 shooting and 4 rebounds in the opening frame.
Ayton finished with 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting and five rebounds in 32 minutes, with the Lakers playing a center-less lineup in the final 3:34.
The Lakers are now 11-15 when Ayton takes nine or fewer shots, and 15-2 when he has at least 10 field goal attempts in a game.
Up next
The Lakers will wrap up their eight-game, 16-day “Grammy” trip against the Nets on Tuesday before having an extended stretch back in Southern California.
By the time the trip ends, the Lakers would’ve been on the road for 12 consecutive days.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
