ATLANTA — Austin Reaves took the baton from Luka Doncic when Doncic sat out Sunday, and when the roles were reversed Monday, Doncic passed it to his teammates.
Doncic had 32 points and 10 assists in a 124-114 win over the Atlanta Hawks as the Lakers won their sixth game in a row, surviving a short bench and a Hawks comeback.
One night after sitting out with low back tightness, Doncic struggled with his shot, but reached double-digit assists with eight rebounds and five steals. Lakers center Walker Kessler had 21 points with 10 rebounds, his sixth double-double in the past seven games, and forward Sandro Mamukelashvili had 23 points and eight rebounds off the bench to help overcome the absences of Reaves and Quentin Grimes.
The Lakers (10-2) didn’t look like a team playing on consecutive nights. They blitzed the Hawks (7-5) with 13 unanswered points and ran up the lead to 20 midway in the second quarter. Guard Collin Sexton and Kessler connected on back-to-back alley-oops during the second quarter to inject life into a shorthanded second unit.
Reaves, who scored 43 points in a thrilling win over Detroit on Sunday, didn’t play because of illness. Grimes suffered a sprained finger on his right hand against Detroit, although Lakers coach JJ Redick doesn’t anticipate that the injury will keep the guard sidelined for long. X-rays were negative, Redick said, and Grimes could return as soon as Friday’s game in Milwaukee.
With two of their regular ballhandlers out, the Lakers needed to rely on Sexton to take pressure off of Doncic’s offensive responsibilities. Sexton, an Atlanta native playing 15 minutes away from his high school, delivered with eight points and three assists in the second quarter alone.
Showing his history with Kessler, his former teammate with the Utah Jazz, Sexton expertly navigated the pick-and-roll with the Lakers’ center when Doncic was on the sideline. Sexton hit a three with 4:45 remaining in the fourth to put the Lakers up by seven.
The Lakers turned to their two youngest players late. Rookie Cameron Carr earned his first rotation minutes and even started the fourth quarter. Carr, whose father Chris played in the NBA and famously won the 1997 dunk contest over Kobe Bryant, scored his first NBA points, appropriately, on a dunk. Doncic snatched a pass away from the Hawks and hit Carr on an outlet pass. The 21-year-old rookie gathered for an emphatic, two-handed dunk.
The first-round pick had two points and three rebounds.
Second-year forward Adou Thiero, who only made his season debut two games ago after struggling with left knee swelling, had two points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal.
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