Dalton Knecht brought out a flamethrower in the third quarter on Tuesday, scoring 21 of his 37 points in the frame to lead the Lakers to a 124-118 win.

The Lakers are now 2-0 in NBA Cup games. They have been undefeated in tournament games since last season with nine wins in a row. LA is also 7-0 at home for the season.

Dalton Knecht went 9-12 from behind the arc, tying the NBA rookie record for made 3-pointers. He became just the fourth Laker to make nine 3-pointers in a game, joining Kobe Bryant, D’Angelo Russell and LeBron James.

Anthony Davis ended with 26 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and two steals. LeBron had 26 points with 12 assists. Austin Reaves pitched in with 17 points and five assists. Cam Reddish, Max Christie, Gabe Vincent and D’Angelo Russell all contributed defensively with blocks, steals and deflections, particularly in the first half.

Minus Cam, the entire starting five scored in double digits. After the first half, three players had 12 points and one had 10, a balanced offensive attack.

The Lakers‘ started on fire offensively. Dalton continued his automatic shooting by connecting on two corner threes.

One of the more welcomed sights was the defense. Cam had two blocks and a steal. D’Lo also blocked a shot and passed it to Dalton for a dunk.

LA had 20 points in the paint and shot 58% from the field to open the game. They had all the momentum, although the Jazz were slowly creeping back into it, cutting down the 15-point Lakers lead. Los Angeles led by 12 at the end of the first after a buzzer-beater three by Gabe.

Utah began the second with much more energy, cutting the deficit down to six after LA had led by as many as 12. A midrange shot by LeBron put LA up by eight. The effective defense the Lakers had played in the first quarter tapered down a bit, with the Jazz making more shots.

Max brought some defensive prowess with a few blocks and deflections, doing the dirty work like Cam did in the first quarter. Dalton dunked twice more and was up to 12 points, the first player in double figures for either team.

The energy picked up for Los Angeles again, with AD taking over scoring. He connected with LeBron again with a lob and scored in transition. The Lakers kept their feet on the gas and led by 12 at halftime.

An and-1 by AD kept the offensive attack going for Los Angeles to start the second half. Dalton drilled another 3-pointer and the Lakers lead continued to expand. Utah had been missing their shots, which led to the LA attack increasing to a 19-point lead.

The Jazz showed some life, trying to cut into the ballooning lead. Keyonte George scored five points for the Jazz and the rest of the team got a small ounce of life to cut the deficit to 14.

The lead dwindled to 11, but Dalton connected on four 3-pointers in a row and was fouled on another attempt from behind the arc, converting all on three, making it a 19-point game. He then, once again, knocked down another long-range effort to push LA’s lead to 22 at the end of the third.

Dalton opened the final frame with yet another 3-pointer. There was a small stretch of sloppy play from both teams with turnovers and missed shots as the Jazz were still trying to get it as close as possible.

Utah’s defense had picked up more, making the Lakers scramble on their shots and a 3-pointer by Lauri Markkanen made it a 16-point game. The Jazz were on a 13-1 run before AD scored a bucket to stop some bleeding.

The Lakers were having a rough time offensively in the quarter and Utah’s scoring run expanded to 23-10. Keyonte drilled two 3-pointers for the Jazz as it eventually became a seven-point game with 1:31 left.

Despite the spirited rally, the Lakers iced the win away at the free throw line.

Key Takeaways:

Dalton officially entered the Rookie of The Year race in dramatic fashion.

If we must nitpick, letting the Jazz get closer in the end was not good and they shouldn’t take their feet off the gas when they have a huge lead.

There were a lot of misses from the free-throw line, they went 26-36. It’s something they need to clean up.

The Lakers’ next game will be Thursday against the Orlando Magic at 7:30 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.