LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dennis Schröder hit the tying basket to force overtime and finished with 25 points, and the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Utah Jazz 127-115 on Saturday in a game between short-handed teams.
Schröder got by Royce O’Neale for a layup with 3 seconds remaining to tie it at 110 and force overtime. The Lakers got outscored 28-16 in the fourth.
Andre Drummond added 27 points and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 25 points for the Lakers, who blew a 14-point lead in the fourth before outscoring Utah 17-5 in the extra session.
The NBA-leading Jazz were without injured starters Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert. Mitchell will be out at least a week with a sprained right ankle he sustained in a win over Indiana on Friday night. An MRI showed there was no structural damage.
Jordan Clarkson led Utah with 27 points against his former team. Ersan Ilyasova added a season-high 20 points before fouling out in overtime and Joe Ingles had 20 points and a career-high-tying 14 assists. Bojan Bogdanovic had 19 points as Utah’s two-game winning streak ended.
Injured Lakers superstars Anthony Davis and LeBron James watched in street clothes. But the Lakers had new addition Drummond and Markieff Morris back in the lineup, along with Kyle Kuzma and Schröder. All four had been dealing with various ailments.
Clarkson hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds left in regulation. He had 10 points in the fourth, when the Jazz opened with a 15-4 run to get within one.
The Lakers took the game’s first double-digit lead on a jumper by Morris late in the third, capping a 7-0 run and stretching their lead to 84-74. The Jazz was held to 20 points, their lowest quarter of the game.
Los Angeles put on a dunking exhibition for the sparse number of fans in the stands. Drummond dribbled in from half-court and put down a one-handed jam to open the third, one of his three in the quarter. Alex Caruso and Montrezl Harrell had showy slams, too. Schröder tried to get in on the action, charging in but missing. He ended up sliding head-first out of bounds to end the period with the Lakers ahead 94-82.
