AD dominates once again, Lakers cruise to Game 3 victory for 2-1 series lead

The defending champs are starting to look like the defending champs, and that is bad news for Phoenix.

The Los Angeles Lakers have now won two consecutive games to take a 2-1 series lead over the Phoenix Suns after a 109-95 Game 3 win on Thursday night.

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Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Dennis Schröder combined to score 65 points to lead the way to victory.

Here is how the Lakers took control of this series:

Key performer: Anthony Davis

How do you follow up a 34-point performance in Game 2? How about another 34 points in Game 3?

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Davis' Game 1 clunker seems like an eternity ago at this point for both the Lakers and the Suns, with the perennial All-Star firmly establishing himself as the best player in this series through the first three games.

The Suns will need to solve the Davis conundrum if they want to tie this series in Game 4 or risk falling behind 3-1 if he continues to dominate.

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Turning point: Lakers' third-quarter run to open the quarter

The Lakers nursed a 43-40 lead heading into halftime, with both teams struggling to score effectively in the first half.

But their offensive woes vanished in the second half, sparked by a 16-6 run to push the lead to 10 points and giving the Lakers control of the game. They would never trail in the second half.

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The Lakers' lead would eventually balloon to 21 points in the second half with the defending champions imposing their will on the young Suns team.

Wild card: Dennis Schröder … again

If this sounds like a repeat of Game 2, that's because it kind of was.

Once again Davis was dominant, James provided the secondary scoring punch and primary playmaking, and Schröder proved to be the third scorer the Lakers needed.

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For the second consecutive game, Schröder scored 20 points while also being a pest on defense with two steals.

For the series, he is now averaging 19.3 PPG and is shooting 56% from the field.

The dominance of Davis and James is expected, but if Schröder continues to get 20 points per game with minimal resistance, the Suns will face an uphill battle to win this series.

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Twitter's take:

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Did you know?

This is the fifth consecutive playoff series in which the Lakers took a 2-1 lead. The Lakers had a 2-1 lead in each of their four playoff series in the 2020 playoffs and won all four of those series en route to their championship

What's next?

The Lakers are now in control of the series, leading 2-1 with Game 4 once again at Staples Center.

The defending champions will look to take a 3-1 series lead at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.

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