South Bay Lakers recap: Bronny James helps Lakers defeat Memphis

6 days ago 2

The South Bay Lakers may be starting to get on a little bit of a roll. They recently won three games in a row, and that streak was snapped on Dec. 27 when they lost by one point in overtime to the Oklahoma City Blue.

On Saturday, they played their first game of 2026 when they welcomed the Memphis Hustle to UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo. The Lakers built double-digit leads in the first and third quarters, but they once again had to go to an extra period in order to decide a contest.

This time, they scored the last four points of overtime to come away with a 125-121 victory.

Kobe Bufkin made half of his 20 shot attempts and scored 26 points, to go along with five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal. Power forward Drew Timme also had 26 points while adding 10 rebounds and nine assists, and Tevian Jones contributed 19 points off the bench.

Bronny James has seemingly regressed in his second pro season, but on Saturday, he logged 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, plus five rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Those 20 points represented his season high in scoring to date.

Overall, South Bay shot 57.1% from the field, outrebounded Memphis 47-38 and had a 27-23 edge in fast-break points.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: South Bay Lakers recap: Bronny James helps Lakers defeat Memphis

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