Los Angeles Lakers Beat Four Seed Phoenix Suns

The Los Angeles Lakers had a fourth quarter win, 121-107, against the fourth seed Pheonix Suns Friday night. LA had a slow start but brought out aggression and impressive offense toward the end to grab the win. The game leaders were D’Angelo Russell with 24 points, Austin Reaves with 22 points and Malik Beasley with 21 points.

It was Beasley's best game in a few weeks where he was back in rhythm and chemistry with the rest of the team. During the postgame press conference, Beasley spoke about how he got back to his normal game play. “I put in a lot of work. At some point it’s gonna fall and gotta make sure it sticks during playoffs.” When asked how different he feels once he finds his rhythm, he said, “I can shoot the ball more because it's going in, so I felt good to get out and play a little bit more tonight and take advantage of the opportunity.”

When asked what Beasley thinks the Lakers need to do to continue to be successful this season, he said, “For me I feel like we just need to win every single game and we’ll see what happens after that and we’ll handle business from there...our talent helps but I think that we play hard I think we got a lot of guys play hard...we play well as a team. When the ball is stagnant that’s when it’s tough for us but when we got the ball, we’re the team to beat.”

As the Los Angeles Lakers get closer to postseason, they have moved up the Western Conference standings and have a strong shot to dominate the playoffs. They currently stand at seed seven and according to Coach Darvin Ham, rest is first on their list after a rigorous travel schedule. “It’s that time of the year man. I know if I'm feeling tired, I can only imagine how they feel. Phoenix is a proudful ball club...they got a lot of guys over there that play hard nonstop. I’m happy we came out on the right side of it,” said Ham. “I don’t feel any lack of confidence...the more we rely on each other as a group, we’ll be okay.”

During the first quarter, D’Angelo Russell, Lebron James and Anthony Davis were the only ones on the board. After a few turnovers in the second quarter, the Lakers heated up and felt the energy when Reaves moved with quick feet and made impressive shots on the court. He made a jump shot from behind his back and the motivation shifted.

The Lakers were patient and grabbed the lead in the last quarter while playing with major aggression and charging the basket.

The lead grew when Russell made two three-pointers back-to-back towards the end of the game and it was clear an LA win was in the bag. The Lakers proceed to the postseason with strength and endurance after a huge win against the Suns.