Luka OUT, Reaves Drops 35 Lakers end 76ers win streak at Home

Written by Malcolm Xavier of The Lakers Room

Los Angeles -Home cooking! after an 8 game grammy trip the Sixers came in to Crypto looking for a sixth straight victory. Joel Embiid is playing adding 26 ppg on nearly 50 percent shooting to the Philadelphia offensive attack that already features Tyrese Maxey at 28.9 PPG himself, good for 5th in the entire NBA. Paul George is still on a somewhat fresh suspension along with the team still reeling from the shocking Jared McCain to the Thunder trade. Odds have the Lakers at -2.5 favorites to open the game.

The Lakers opened in the purple Statement Edition jerseys, Austin Reaves sat still on the bench off of injury with a fresh Black History Month long sleeve - appropriately. Tyrese Maxey and Luka Doncic traded buckets to start the game and Joel Embiid quickly found the free throw line to give Philly an early lead which got up to 8-2 the Lakers stalled at two points until the 8:20 mark when the first stoppage occured with a contested out of bounds challenge that the Sixer won to retain possesion. VJ Edgecombe walked to the rim for a dunk for the second time early after an Ayton score to push the lead to 12-4 before Laravia and Embiid traded baskets to push it to 14-6. The Sixers committed to taking the ball out of Luka's hands early. He still led the Lakers with 8 hard earned first quarter points but the Lakers got down by as much as 10 trailing 20-10 with 5 mins remaining in the first before closing on a 13-7 run to get the score to 27-23 to end the quarted LeBron James was scoreless after one.

Reaves opened the second quarter with a driving layup on a blow by. Joel Embiid matched with a 15 footer before LeBron went on a mini 4-0 run punctuated by a highlight dunk to cut the lead to 29-27. Philadelphia countered with a 11-5 run with three baskets in tehe pain to get the lead to 40-32 after Austin Reaves made his first three pointer of the game. After a LA timeout Jake Laravia and Ayton both scored for a 4-0 run to make it 40-36. The Sixers countered with a 9-4 run of their own before an Austin Reaves layup slightly stopped the bleeding. Luka hobbled around the court simultaneously while Maxey found Dominick Barlow for a layup and the Lakers called a timeout to examine Luka Doncic with 3:03 remaining in the second and Philly up 51-42. Doncic went back to the lockers room when play resume, a Reaves technical free throw followed by layups to fuel a 5-0 run to bring the score back to 51-47. The 76ers closed the half strong on another 8-4 burst 6 points at the hole one by Edgecombe, Barlow and Maxey respectively. The Lakers trail by 8 59-51 at the half and somehow that feels lucky. Wether Luka returns or not the Lakers have a tough second half ahead

The Sixers started the third on a 6-0 run to all in the paint to stretch the lead to 65-51 capped on a layup by Maxey. Ayton fueled a 4-0 run by himself to close it to 10 at 65-55 Rui hit a pull up to make it 8 before Maxey pushed it back to 10 with another driving layup. The Lakers trailed 69-57 before 12-5 Lakers run closed the gap to 74-69 punctuated by a LeBron and one on an Austin Reaves assist. The teams traded buckets a few minutes before Reaves drew the 4th foul on Maxey to get to the line and keep the score at 83-77 two free throws by LaRavia and and a huge Rui three that brought the crowd to life closed the score to 83-81. Trendon Watford scored twice sandwiched by another Rui jumper to end the quarter at 87-85 after a the Lakers caught fire.

The start of the 4th quarter was Austin Reaves time he engineered an 8-0 run scoring all eight himself to go along with two free throws to give the Lakers a six point lead the first lead since the first quarter. Time out Philadelphia as the crowd erupted and serenaded Reaves with MVP chants. The Sixers struggled and lost the ball out of bounds before and ugly LeBron James turnover 1 on 1 with Joel Embiid that let to a Tyrese Maxey run out and shooting foul to get the lead to 93-89 before Marcus Smart did his Magic Johnson impersonation witha sweet find down low to Vanderbilt. After another stop LeBron scored down low to make the lead 97-89 and give LA even more momentum. Another Sixers timeout. After the timeout Oubre momentarily stopped the momentum with a trip to the line to bring the lead to 97-91 LA. Marcus Smart responded with a two consecutive huge 3s to stretch the lead to 103-93. Reaves followed it up with a third straight bomb before two LeBron James drives sandwiched by a Maxey free throw stretched the lead to 110-94 with 4:04 left in the fourth. The 76ers responded with a 10-0 run with a 3 from Maxey and free throws from Oubre and Embiid before a Lebron James dunk stopped the run to push the lead to 112-104 with just over 90 seconds remaining. Edgecombe responded with a dunk before Reaves drew a foul on Grimes on a drive to keep it at 114-106 with 1:08 remaining. LeBron answered with a dunk before Maxey scored and James turned it over leading to an Edgecombe three to cut it to one possession at 116-113. Smart made one at the line to get it to 117-113 befroe the Sixers called a timeout. Maxey made a 6 foot driving floater but Rui answered with a dunk off a Maxi Kleber assist to get it to 119-115. After a miss by the Sixers and Reaves rebound the Lakers walked away with a victory, no place like home!