Los Angeles Lakers News

Final: Magic 110, Lakers 109.

Wendell Carter Jr. with the put back. Magic lead 110-109 with 6.7 sec left. Lakers timeout and a chance to win the game.

LeBron puts the Lakers up, 109-108 off the cut

Tony Bennett: "When Rob and I began talking, what stood out to me was the chance to help out such a storied organization. The Lakers carry a tradition that speaks for itself, so to be connected to it and assist Rob and the Lakers in any way I can is exciting."

Rob Pelinka on Tony Bennett: "We're thrilled and honored to welcome Tony as an advisor to the Lakers basketball operations department. As we refine and build out our NBA draft and scouting processes, we could think of no better basketball mind than Tony Bennett to have as a resource. Tony's track record of forming culture, with high-character, high-skill and high-Q players is revered and respected across all basketball circles. Tony will be an incredible asset to our basketball leadership, to our scouts and to our draft department as a whole. We are truly excited."

Lakers announced they've named Tony Bennett as NBA Draft advisor

The Los Angeles Lakers have hired former University of Virginia coach Tony Bennett as an NBA Draft advisor under president Rob Pelinka.

The Lakers welcome Tony Bennett as NBA Draft Advisor.

Deandre Ayton on being rewarded with more touches from his teammates: “Most definitely. The ball finds energy. So yeah, they believe in me when I'm down there and sealing. They see me running hard to the rim or crashing and they reward me. [I] just add more and keep stacking as many possessions as I can with that just to have a certain rhythm throughout the game.”

LeBron James on his assessment of Lakers’ growth over the past three weeks: “I don’t know. I didn’t even know what today was when I woke up. You asked me about the last three weeks. I’m the wrong guy to ask, champ.”

LeBron James on his thoughts during the final possession of the game: “I thought we had a good opportunity. Lu (Luka Dončić) came off clean. I think he felt off balance, but we executed. We didn't get the shot that we wanted. We did execute it and it doesn’t go down.”

JJ Redick on his thoughts of the final possession: “I haven't had a chance to really get into it with Luka [Dončić]. We obviously ran a play for him to get a look. I felt like he had a decent shot. I don't know if he thought [Jonathan] Isaac was going to over-help when he hit LeBron [James] there. I thought, if you look at the sequence of events there in the last whatever it was, 36 seconds, we went for a two-for-one. We executed it. We got a wide-open three from Rui [Hachimura]. That's a great shot for us, one of our best shots that we can get, [he] doesn't make it, but we get the ball out of bounds on the deflection, we executed our inbounds. AR [Austin Reaves] set a great screen. LeBron created a lot of thrust on that with some red confusion and we score. Then, we get a stop, just not able to secure the rebound. You go into this game with their size and their strength; you know it's going to be a rock fight. We lose the scoring opportunity by eight in a one-point game. I think that's the game. We had more turnovers than them, they got more offensive rebounds than us.”

Lakers crumble on the final play of the game... Magic win! Luka had a WIDE OPEN look 😳

That's final

Why Isaac was glued to LeBron at the top of the key, I have no idea...

Lakers control the tip.

Challenge successful. No foul on Wendell Carter Jr. Jump ball at midcourt.

Luka is fouled shooting a 3, but Orlando will challenge that call. 1:05 to go.

Banchero misses the FT. Lakers lead 106-105.

Luka just leapfrogged the first row diving after a loose ball. He’s okay.

Luka with a 3

Paolo Banchero puts Orlando up 101-100. Both teams trading blows.

Luka Doncic puts the Lakers up, 100-98.

Jake LaRavia ties the game up at 98 with a 3. Magic turn to call timeout. 4:41 to go.

Austin Reaves in the 2nd half