Lakers routed by Suns as Bledsoe, Knight dominate

Knight finished the game with 30 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds to go with four steals and helped orchestrate a potent fast break attack. “When you see that first one, you’ll probably know he’s a hundred percent”.

“I feel way better”. Scott approached Bryant during a fourth-quarter timeout and said he was going to play him the rest of the way and not use him Monday and Bryant agreed. “When you see that first one you’ll know”.

Eric Bledsoe added 21 points and T.J. Warren scored a career-high 19 points on 9-13 shooting coming off of the bench. There was an emphasis on Goodwin getting stronger in the offseason to be able to finish his drives without getting knocked down but that improved strength is paying off just as much on the defensive end to fight through screens when he is off the ball or on the dribbler. “He controlled the game like a point guard should”, Bledsoe said. He makes Marcelo Huertas look like an absolute fool, pulling off a crossover so nasty that Huertas spins around like a dreidel on Hanukkah. “We just didn’t do our job matching them”. “When I played here with Kevin Johnson (1989-92), we said ‘You do your thing, and everyone else is going to get shots because the defense has to collapse.’ That happened a lot tonight”.

LAKERS GUARD JORDAN CLARKSON “We’ve got to do the small things, the fundamental stuff”.

Against the Los Angeles Lakers, though, Knight finally got one.

Lakers coach Byron Scott also was upset by his team’s 17 turnovers, which were turned into 24 Phoenix points. “They are exciting to watch because they play extremely hard. We’ll try to take advantage of the matchups and who’s rolling and just let them go”.

It was Phoenix’s ninth win in 10 games against the Lakers, the Suns’ best stretch ever in 47 years of playing the Lakers.

When the Phoenix Suns acquired Brandon Knight, they were hoping to address their need for more 3-point shooting, specifically to help take pressure off of Eric Bledsoe in close games. At one point, he assisted on five straight made field goals, the last of which was on Warren’s six-foot jump shot which gave the Suns a 103-86 lead with 5:41 to play.

When D’Angelo Russell was drafted with the second overall pick last June, the Lakers envisioned him teaming with Clarkson as interchangeable point guards for many, many successful years.

Lou Williams and Nick Young carried the Lakers in the second period, scoring 10 and eight points, but the Lakers’ deficit remained four, 57-53, at halftime. But the Suns ended the first quarter on an 11-2 run with Knight scoring nine, including two free throws with 0.9 of a second left to give Phoenix a 26-22 lead.