The Lakers held off two Orlando Magic attempts from behind the arc with a three-point lead and one defensive stop left, but both missed to win 106-103 on the second night of a back-to-back. The Lakers improved to 2-2 and defeated the young Magic for the first time this season.

This game was ugly as the Lakers again struggled from behind the arc and couldn’t move ahead of the fresh-legged Magic. The Lakers made eight of 27 3-pointers, but they made two important triples in the final minutes to retake the lead as both teams battled for the scoreboard.

D’Angelo Russell’s three-point shooting and offense burst helped the team’s performance on that end. Russell made 10 of 14 shots, including half from behind the arc, and scored 28 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter. D-Lo negotiated the Magic’s ball pressure guards and long-armed wings to get to his spots and find enough separation mid-range and beyond the arc to make Orlando pay.

Anthony Davis, who controlled the paint on both ends against a large and rangy Orlando front court, joined Russell in a great two-way performance. AD scored 26, had 19 rebounds, five assists, three blocks, and a steаl while making 12 of 18 shots from the floor and 2-3 from the foul line.

Davis moved around Orlando’s defense offensively, sliding into position for deep post-ups to score near the basket, darting into mid-range for shots when the Magic defense left him too much space, or spinning downhill to score when there was nothing else.

When the Magic tried to score inside, Davis and Christian Wood protected the paint. Although Davis didn’t block every shot, his ability to delay or dissuade Orlando players’ shoots forced misses or moved the Magic into the perimeter.

To their credit, Orlando accepted what the defense offered them and punished the Lakers for dumping them. The Magic, known for their poor three-point shooting, made 14 of 35 attempts from deep and were +18 from behind the arc, which kept them in the game offensively despite their woeful two-point shooting (24-60, 40%).

The Lakers persevered to make enough plays to win. LeBron James joined Russell and Davis as a scorer and playmaker to win the game with a one-point advantage in the fourth quarter.

LeBron scored nine of his 19 points in the 4th, first getting downhill to score on a variety of interior buckets to keep the Lakers connected, then hitting a crucial three-pointer to give the Lakers a lead in a wild exchange of threes that culminated in Russell’s triple off Wood’s assist.

After this back-to-back, the Lakers will rest before playing the Clippers on Wednesday to build on this win.