PHILADELPHIA — Just one night after the Lakers had a 12-minute stretch where it felt like everything was going their way, they had an even more prolonged stretch on Tuesday when it felt like everything was unraveling.
The Lakers’ winning streak not only ended with a 118-104 blowout loss to the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers, but star big man Anthony Davis left the game in the first quarter with an abdominal injury.
Similar to Monday’s road win against the Charlotte Hornets, the Lakers got off to a good start against the 76ers (18-27), grabbing an 18-9 lead midway through the first.
The start was as good as it got for the Lakers, who fell to 26-19 with their first loss since falling to the Clippers on Jan. 19 at Intuit Dome.
The defeat was the Lakers’ first of their six-game “Grammy” trip, which continues with a matchup against the Washington Wizards on Thursday.
LeBron James led the Lakers with 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go with nine assists and eight rebounds, but the 21-time All-Star also had eight of the Lakers’ 22 turnovers that led to 27 points for the 76ers.
Rookie Dalton Knecht scored 24 points off of the bench while Austin Reaves finished with 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds.
After appearing to hold the left side of his body after the game’s first timeout earlier in the quarter, Davis subbed out at the 2:10 mark of the first as part of the normal rotation and immediately went to the locker room for examination.
Davis, likely to be named a Western Conference reserve for the All-Star Game on Thursday, sat out for the rest of the night.
The Lakers said during the second quarter that Davis was questionable to return because of a strained abdominal muscle before ruling him out at halftime.
There was no immediate timeline for Davis’ return to action. How and when he sustained the injury was unclear.
Davis finished with four points and two rebounds in 10 minutes, one night after recording 42 points and 23 rebounds against the Hornets for the fifth 40-point, 20-rebound game of his career.
After the score was tied at 25 at the end of the first, the 76ers outscored the Lakers 48-32 in the second quarter to take a 73-57 lead into halftime.
The Lakers started the third quarter with Dorian Finney-Smith in Davis’ spot along with the starters.
The Lakers didn’t reduce their deficit to below 13 points in the second half, with the 76ers – who were without Joel Embiid, Paul George, Andre Drummond, Caleb Martin, KJ Martin and Jared McCain – winning their third consecutive game.
Coach JJ Redick took James and the rest of the team’s rotation players out with the Lakers trailing 110-93 midway through the fourth.
Tyrese Maxey had 43 points on 15-of-26 shooting (4 for 11 from 3-point range) to pace Philadelphia, which had eight more offensive rebounds and took 19 more shots from the field than the Lakers. Kelly Oubre Jr. added 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists while Guerschon Yabusele and Eric Gordon each scored 14 points.
More to come on this story.