NBA: Davis leads Lakers to big win

Lakers finally hit their stride in the new NBA season, running the Rockets ragged on offense and bottling up their top scorers on defense

Los Angeles: Anthony Davis scored a game-high 27 points as the Los Angeles Lakers delivered a dominating all-around performance on Sunday with a crushing 120-102 defeat of the Houston Rockets in Texas.

The Lakers finally hit their stride in the new NBA season, running the Rockets ragged on offense and bottling up their top scorers on defense, especially three-time league scoring champion James Harden, who was held to 20 points and committed seven turnovers.

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LeBron James scored 18 points as he and fellow all-star Davis had plenty of help from the bench. Talen Horton-Tucker (17 points), Montrezl Harrell (16) and Kyle Kuzma (13) all came off the bench to reach double figures for the Lakers, who are now a perfect 5-0 on the road to start the season.

Elsewhere, Kawhi Leonard scored a team high 35 points and surpassed 10,000 career points as the Los Angeles Clippers rallied to edge the Chicago Bulls 130-127. Leonard earned the bulk of his points during an explosive third quarter in which he scored 21, a career high for one quarter.

Mike Conley had 22 points and Rudy Gobert grabbed 20 rebounds as the Utah Jazz slipped past the Detroit Pistons 96-86. The Boston Celtics’ home game against the Miami Heat didn’t even get on court, the contest postponed because of Covid-19 safety measures.

Miami did not have the required number of available players to play the game while the Celtics were down to the NBA minimum of eight. Also, Nikola Jokic posted another double-double by finishing with 22 points and 10 rebounds for the visiting Denver Nuggets, who cruised to a 114-89 win over the New York Knicks.