Walker Kessler Credits Lakers’ Resilience After Sixth Straight Win

The Los Angeles Lakers won in Detroit without Luka Dončić on Sunday. A night later, they won in Atlanta without Austin Reaves, and Walker Kessler saw something the team could carry beyond the back-to-back.

“It’s building resiliency,” Kessler said. “JJ talks about it, going through adversity and understanding that to be a championship team, you’ve got to respond to that kind of stuff.”

Kessler had 21 points and 10 rebounds in Monday’s 124-114 win, the Lakers’ sixth straight. Los Angeles improved to 10-2, while the Hawks fell to 7-5.

Reaves missed the game with an illness after scoring 43 points against the Pistons. Quentin Grimes was also out with a sprained right finger, leaving the Lakers without two guards on the second night of a back-to-back road trip.

Dončić returned from lower-back tightness and finished with 32 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds and five steals. He had five assists in the first quarter, when the Lakers scored 13 straight points to close the period.

With Reaves and Grimes out, Collin Sexton took on more of the playmaking. He scored eight points in the second quarter and threw three lobs to Kessler as Los Angeles built a 20-point lead.

Sexton and Kessler played together in Utah, and their timing showed when they connected on back-to-back alley-oops. Sexton finished with 18 points and six assists, while Kessler recorded his sixth double-double in seven games.

Sandro Mamukelashvili added 23 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Lakers head coach JJ Redick called it “his best game as a Laker.”

The Lakers needed scoring from their frontcourt with two guards unavailable, and Kessler and Mamukelashvili combined for 44 points. Sexton’s ability to create for Kessler also gave Los Angeles a way to keep getting shots at the rim without asking Dončić to initiate every trip.

Atlanta whittled away at the lead and got within four when Dyson Daniels scored with 3:30 remaining. The Lakers answered with six straight points, stretching a 115-111 lead back to double digits.

That was the clearest example of what Kessler was talking about. Los Angeles had controlled much of the game, but the Hawks were two possessions from tying it, and the Lakers still had to close on the road with a shortened rotation.

The two wins asked different things of Los Angeles. Reaves carried the scoring in Detroit, while Dončić returned to lead the offense in Atlanta and got help from Sexton, Kessler and Mamukelashvili.

The back-to-back also showed how quickly roles can change. One night after Reaves scored 43, the Lakers had to replace both his scoring and his playmaking, and they did it with contributions from the starting lineup and the bench.