LOS ANGELES — The Lakers didn’t look like a team dealing with the circumstances they had been the last couple of days in their 136-105 blowout win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Despite coming off their first pair of consecutive losses in 1½ months, and the news that yet another player on their team could miss significant time because of an injury, the Lakers came out with the necessary focus to make sure their losing streak didn’t extend to three games.
LeBron James (25 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds) and Anthony Davis (22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists), who was available after suffering a left corneal abrasion in Saturday’s home loss to the Golden State Warriors, led the Lakers (37-32) early after a slow start.
And it was the shotmaking from D’Angelo Russell (27 points, 10 assists, four rebounds) in the second half that gave the Lakers the spark they needed to essentially make the final quarter noncompetitive, with the Lakers taking a 111-86 lead into the fourth and cruising to their 13th win in the past 20 games.
“We got off to a bit of a slow start in the first couple, three minutes, but we quickly recalibrated,” coach Darvin Ham said. “We spotted them 11-2 and then we went on like a 14-2 run. And then pretty much didn’t look back. There was a lot of carryover on the defensive end.
“If we continue that way, playing the right way, guys gonna make, gonna miss shots, but as long as we give them the opportunity to do so, and we make quick decisions, you’ll have nights like this when you have six guys that end up being in double figures.”
With Rui Hachimura (17 points) and Austin Reaves (12 points, six rebounds, four assists) also reaching double figures, every Lakers scored at least 12 points on a night when they had 39 assists.
Max Christie added 11 points off the bench, with all of the players in the Lakers’ main rotation all scoring at least one basket.
The Hawks (30-38), who have been without All-Star guard Trae Young (torn ligament in finger on left hand) since late February, struggled to keep the Lakers from getting inside, with the Lakers scoring 68 points in the paint.
The Lakers outplayed the Hawks in nearly every facet of the game, shooting 57.8% from the field (52 for 90), 41.7% from 3-point range (15 for 36), scoring 23 fast-break points and getting 33 points from their bench, which got extended playing time in light of the blowout.
“Even though you may be dealing with a surplus in terms of a lead, there’s things you still can work on,” Ham said. “You get up by 20, 25, 30, you tend to exhale. Just how can we stay sharp? How can we continue to build defensive stops, stack defensive stops?”
Davis sat out the entire fourth quarter with the game already decided. He struggled with his vision after Saturday’s game, with his left eye swelling up quickly after getting hit in the face, but could see clearly by Monday.
“The corneal abrasion was actually right in the middle of my eye,” Davis said. “It wasn’t like off to the side. So anytime I looked it was blurry. My eye was swollen. I thought my eye was like, open, but it wasn’t. It kept watering. It just felt like sand was in my eye. So it was just better closed and I couldn’t really see. So, I’ve just been icing it, like Saturday after the third quarter and it got better later that night.
“The swelling went down. I just kind of stayed in darkness. And then went to go see the doctor on Sunday morning and some more things that we ended up finding out. But it was really tough for me to see.”
James and Russell subbed out with 8:40 remaining, with the Lakers leading 124-90.
Russell, who shot 6 for 10 from behind the arc, tied Nick Van Exel’s franchise single-season record for 3-pointers (183) with his sixth 3-pointer early in the fourth. Russell’s latest standout shooting display was highlighted by a beautiful 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer.
“It’s really cool, honestly, just to know that, to get credit for it,” Russell said. “It’s just really cool. I said I don’t want to underdo it, understate it, overdo it. I just feel like it’s really cool to just be a part of something like that.”
With the Lakers’ win and the Warriors’ loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night, the Lakers moved back up to the No. 9 spot in the Western Conference standings.
Jalen Johnson scored 25 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic had 17 for the Hawks, who have lost four of five overall and three of four on their West Coast road trip.
Backup big man Christian Wood, who’s headed toward having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, is expected to be sidelined for several weeks.
The Lakers don’t play again until Friday when they host the Philadelphia 76ers.
“A lot of guys put in a lot of good work over the last few days,” Ham said. “So we’ll come back Wednesday with a sharp focus to get better and work on ourselves. That’s been the biggest key. We’ll get a chance to tighten up some things offensively. Tighten up some things defensively. There’s a couple of new wrinkles we want to do on both sides of the ball and we’ll get a chance to look at.”