It wasn’t always pretty, but the Lakers bounced back after being down by eight at halftime, outscoring the Orlando Magic by 19 in the second half of a 116-105 win over one of the NBA’s worst teams to kick off their annual Grammy road trip.
LeBron James took advantage of Orlando’s porous paint defense — the Magic gave up the first 50-point performance of Joel Embiid’s career in their previous game — doing most of his damage around the rim in a 29-point performance, his 16th straight game leading the Lakers in scoring and 16th game in a row in which he scored 25 or more.