The @Lakers score 47 PTS in the first quarter tonight. It's the most in a quarter for any team THIS YEAR!
Here's how they did it… pic.twitter.com/pDPeLtjZaI
— NBA (@NBA) February 11, 2017
Luke Walton‘s maiden voyage as a full-time NBA head coach isn’t going quite as well as many hoped. To be fair, Walton took over a team that does not boast a roster worthy of legitimate playoff contention, but after a strong start to the 2016-2017 campaign, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled mightily in the recent past. In fact, no team outside of Brooklyn can definitively claim an uglier run over the past few months than the Lakers, and the team was in dire need of a bright spot as they took the floor against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.
Seemingly on cue, the Lakers exploded out of the gate, and the result was a 47-point eruption that doubled as the highest scoring NBA quarter of the season. In the 12-minute period, Los Angeles converted 18-of-22 field goal attempts and 6-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc, lighting up Milwaukee’s defense without holding back. To that end, the Lakers actually missed two free throws (though they made five) in the opening frame, and things could have realistically been worse.
Nick Young, who is enjoying a renaissance season at the age of 31, led the Lakers with 11 points in the first quarter, but the performance was even more impressive since it was not based on one individual showing. Nine players scored for Los Angeles in the opening quarter, and only Young reached double figures.
Simply blowing through the video above will provide a window into just how unconscious the Lakers were for a few minutes on Friday, and they needed to be as a result of allowing 30 points on the defensive end in their own right. Finding positives to take away from this season has been a challenge for one of the league’s flagship franchises, but this was truly a show.
