Lakers vs. Knicks: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2017 Regular Season

The Los Angeles Lakers snapped a 12-game road losing streak with a 121-107 win over the New York Knicks on Monday at Madison Square Garden.

Los Angeles had lost 10 of its last 12 overall but put forth a balanced offensive effort with seven players in double figures to improve to 18-36 on the season. For the Knicks, this could be a new low point, as the squad fell to 22-31.

The Lakers made a few changes to their lineup, notably shifting Brandon Ingram into the starting five. He responded with 14 points and seven rebounds. Tarik Black, who also earned a start, finished with nine points and 10 rebounds as well as an incredible plus-34 rating.

Lou Williams led Los Angeles with 22 points, while Larry Nance Jr. came through with 10 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and a big dunk, as the NBA shared:

Carmelo Anthony did his job amid trade speculation, totaling 26 points and five assists for New York.

However, the rest of the team struggled on both ends of the court. Derrick Rose had just five points, while Kristaps Porzingis scored most of his 16 points after the game was in hand.

The loss created some question marks regarding the coaching staff, per Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:

Bobby Marks of The Vertical provided the other side of it:

In any case, something needs to change if the Knicks want to turn their season around.

The Lakers got off to a hot start with their adjusted lineup, with Ingram making big plays early. Serena Winters of Lakers Nation described the quality play:

On the other side, the Knicks' top young player couldn't make shots as the Lakers took a 29-19 lead into the second quarter, as Al Iannazzone of Newsday noted:

Things didn't get any better for New York, whose weak defense allowed the Lakers to extend the lead.

Los Angeles took advantage of the Knicks' laziness with a fast-break alley-oop to Nance, via the team's official Twitter account:

A four-point play from Williams further extended the Lakers' lead:

The Lakers jumped out to a 57-30 advantage, though a 10-2 Knicks run helped trim the deficit to 61-45 by halftime.

Unsurprisingly, the fans were not enjoying the show, per Steve Popper of NorthJersey.com:

The Knicks had forced only one turnover and were being out-rebounded 32-21, with the only positive being Anthony, who had 19 points at the half.

Los Angeles continued its offensive show in the third quarter, with Nick Young, Ingram and others lighting up the scoreboard. The team scored 36 points in the quarter to build a 97-73 advantage.

While defense remained a major issue for New York, Los Angeles was able to turn defense into offense:

The Knicks started to make things interesting in the fourth quarter, with the 21-year-old Porzingis finally making a few shots. They cut the deficit to 105-90 while utilizing better defense than they had shown all game.

Although the margin hovered around 15 points as the clock ticked down, they couldn't cut the score to single digits in a blowout loss.

Mike Trudell of the Lakers' official website described the only drama in the final minutes involving Metta World Peace:

Los Angeles will continue its extended road trip with matchups against the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday and Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Knicks will continue their home stand with three more difficult games, beginning with the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. With the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs to follow, this could end up being another disappointing stretch of games for New York.

Postgame Reaction

There were unsurprisingly very different reactions from the two locker rooms after the game.

"That was embarrassing," Brandon Jennings said, per Iannazzone.

"Pride, effort, however you want to put it, it just wasn't there," Anthony said, per Ian Begley of ESPN. "My word is effort. Coach's word is pride. It just wasn't there."

On the other side, the Lakers saw this game as a potential breakout after a rough start.

"It was about 48 minutes of focus," Nance explained, per Winters. "This was a start to finish effort for us."

"It was a great team effort, and within that team effort a lot of guys had little spurts where they made game-winning plays," head coach Luke Walton said, per the team's Twitter account.

This is how it looks when one team sees the arguably the lowest point of the season with another team earning one of its highs.