Lakers hold off NBA-leading Jazz 127-115 in OT
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dennis Schröder hit the tying basket to force overtime and finished with 25 points, and the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Utah Jazz 127-115 on Saturday in a game between short-handed teams.
Schröder got by Royce O’Neale for a layup with 3 seconds remaining to tie it at 110 and force overtime after the Lakers got outscored 28-16 in the fourth.
Andre Drummond added 27 points and Kentavious CaldwellPope had 25 points for the Lakers, who blew a 14-point lead early in the fourth before outscoring Utah 17-5 in the extra session.
“We clicked on all cylinders and we didn’t allow adversity to get us out of our game,” Drummond said. “The chemistry is getting ther e.”
The NBA-leading Jazz were without injured starters Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert. Mitchell will be out at least a week with a sprained right ankle he sustained in a win over Indiana on Friday night. An MRI showed there was no structural damage.
Jordan Clarkson led Utah with 27 points against his former team. Ersan Ilyasova added a season-high 20 points before fouling out in overtime and Joe Ingles had 20 points and a career-high-tying 14 assists. Bojan Bogdanovic had 19 points as Utah’s twogame winning streak ended.
“We’re missing four pretty important guys,” Ingles said. “For most of the game, we did a pretty good job. We were one stop away from winning the game.”
Injured Lakers superstars Anthony Davis and LeBron James watched in street clothes. But the Lakers had new addition Drummond and Markieff Morris back in the lineup, along with Kyle Kuzma and Schröder. All four had been dealing with various ailments.
“He’s always in the moment,” Morris said of Schröder. “Tonight we needed him to score more. He made some great plays at the end of the game. We’re getting to the point where everybody knows each other’s game. We need that camaraderie.”
Clarkson hit a goahead 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds left in regulation. He had 10 points in the fourth, when the Jazz opened with an 184 run to get within two. Schröder scored the Lakers’ final six points of r egul at i on.
---AP