Dalton Knecht goes wild to help the Lakers beat the Jazz and remain undefeated in the Emirates NBA Cup

As the Los Angeles Lakers look to defend their Emirates Cup title, they continued group play on Tuesday night when they hosted the Utah Jazz.

The Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs in their first game, looking to remain undefeated in group play. They did just that, beating the Jazz 124-118 to pick up their sixth straight win overall and improve their record to 10-4.

With Rui Hachimura missing a third straight game, Dalton Knecht got another start and got the scoring started for the Lakers with a corner triple. He then made another one from the same extra point to give his team an early 10-4 lead.

It wasn’t long before the Lakers took their first double-digit lead at 18-8 after buckets inside by Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Knecht. Overall, it was a dominant defensive first quarter for the Lakers, who took a 34-22 lead into the second after Gabe Vincent hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson led a Jazz run to start the second and quickly cut their deficit back to six. However, Knecht continued his strong half with a pair of dunks, including one on an alley-oop from Reaves.

The Lakers regained control from there as James led a run to end the half and take a 57-44 lead into the locker room.

After a relatively quiet first half scoring, LeBron got going in the third quarter with a three point game and then a triple. He then had a dunk to put LA up 75-56, forcing a Jazz timeout.

Knecht had another crazy stretch to end the third quarter, making four straight triples and then fouling on his fifth attempt. His next attempt also went in as he had a career-high 33 points through three quarters with the Lakers leading comfortably, 97-75. His play had the entire Crypto.com Arena on their feet as all of his teammates looked to find him for triples.

Knecht made one more 3-pointer for good measure to begin the fourth, and his ridiculous stretch appeared to put the game out of reach, though the Jazz were actually able to cut their deficit to 16, forcing a timeout by Redick.

Given the points difference in the Emirates NBA Cup, the hope was for a blowout to ensure LA would win all tiebreakers. However, the Jazz kept fighting and cut their deficit to seven at one point.

In the end though, the Lakers were never in danger and were able to close out the win.

Knecht would finish with a career-high 37 points on 12-of-16 shooting and 9-for-12 from 3 to go along with five rebounds and a steal.

What’s next for the Lakers

The Lakers have two difficult home games to finish the week, hosting the Orlando Magic on Thursday and then the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.

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