Dorian Finney-Smith hobbled around, the ankle problems that kept him off the court in the Lakers’ losses to Brooklyn and Denver, obvious. Still, he fought with Kevin Durant and helped push the Phoenix star into missing eight of his first nine shots.
In the second half, Finney-Smith would hit two big threes and have a key offensive rebound.
Jordan Goodwin hadn’t started consecutive games this season, nevertheless consecutive games for a team with NBA title hopes, and here he was Sunday, harassing Devin Booker. He opened the game with a tip-in and finished it by extending a possession with another hustle play.
“Never judge a player by his box score,” JJ Redick said of Goodwin, who had just two points and four fouls.
And Jaxson Hayes, a former lottery pick given up on by the team that drafted him and by most of the league, feasted at the rim and ran in and out of defensive switches, the Lakers quickly reestablishing their defensive intensity after a four-game road trip where they never totally made it off the plane.
“We knew we had to be better,” Luka Doncic said.
Even though they didn’t have LeBron James and Rui Hachimura in their starting lineup, Hayes’ return and Finney-Smith’s and Goodwin’s defense made the Lakers look more like the team that had won eight straight and not the one that just dropped four in a row on the road.
Playing their first of five home games this week, the Lakers recaptured their identity largely thanks to their role players, the team clamping down on the Suns during a 107-96 win.
None of this is to say the Lakers’ healthy stars weren’t terrific — they were.
One game after he nearly willed the Lakers to a win in Denver, Austin Reaves scored 28 to go with six assists and four rebounds. He hit a three over rookie Oso Ighodaro and drew a foul, Durant slumping back into his seat on the Suns’ bench. He drove past Booker, absorbed the contact and scored, flexing at the Lakers’ bench.
And Doncic, who didn’t play in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back set, scored 33 points to go with 11 rebounds and eight assists — his fifth game in the past six where he scored at least 30.
“Getting there,” Doncic said, “but every day I’m feeling better.”
The Lakers play again Monday night against San Antonio.
James, who has missed the past four games, did an on-court workout Sunday but he’s still unlikely to return for a little bit despite being called “day to day.” The expectation is the Lakers will be conservative with his recovery from a strained groin while he ramps up to a return.
Without him, the Lakers have their formula — a formula that requires Hayes back on the court and the team playing with the right spirit.
Healthy or not, that’s who the Lakers need to be — even if the odds were stacked against them. They’d just been on a road trip, they’d just suffered a brutal loss in Denver on Friday and they needed to be at their home arena first thing Sunday to play the Suns.
And they were the team that played hard.
“That to me, that says everything about our group,” Redick said proudly.
