Suns vs. Lakers highlights

Los Angeles beat Phoenix 101-73 on Friday, April 10, locking up home-court advantage in the first round behind 28 points and 12 assists from LeBron James. (espn.com) The Lakers led 33-24 after one quarter and never trailed again at Crypto.com Arena, finishing the night at 52-29 while Phoenix fell to 44-37. (espn.com; basketball-reference.com) James shot 10-for-16 from the field in 32 minutes, and Los Angeles got 19 points from Rui Hachimura and 13 from Luke Kennard. Marcus Smart returned from a nine-game injury absence and added six points with seven assists. (espn.com; espn.com) Phoenix shot 34 percent overall, 17 percent from three-point range, and committed 23 turnovers in what ESPN’s recap, citing The Associated Press, described as the Suns’ lowest-scoring game of the season. Dillon Brooks led Phoenix with 12 points. (espn.com; espn.com) That made the game more than a routine late-season stop. With two days left in the regular season, the Lakers turned a Friday home game into a standings result that secured first-round home court. (espn.com) The highlights package that went up online after the game centers on the sequence that decided it early: James either scored or assisted on nine of the Lakers’ first 10 field goals as Los Angeles built a 16-point cushion. (espn.com; youtube.com) The box score shows how cleanly Los Angeles controlled the details. The Lakers shot 51 percent, hit 40 percent of their threes, and finished with 27 assists against 11 turnovers. (espn.com) Phoenix actually won the rebounding battle 47-35, with Oso Ighodaro collecting 10 rebounds, but the extra possessions did not matter once the Suns’ offense stalled in the second half. They scored 16 points in the third quarter and nine in the fourth. (espn.com) For anyone coming to the matchup through the highlight reel, the final frame tells the story better than any single dunk: a late-season game tied to playoff seeding turned into a 28-point Lakers win before the postseason even started. (youtube.com; espn.com)