Los Angeles, California - LeBron James walked down the court in front of the rich and famous courtside in Staples Center, one finger in the air, tallying the latest Los Angeles Lakers points – this time coming on a bucket from Anthony Davis after a pinpoint James assist.

He wasn’t done adding them up.

After both teams struggled to put the ball in the basket in the previous quarter, the third belonged to Davis – the Lakers’ star too strong and too skilled for a Suns defense that again couldn’t contain him.

And with James bulldozing the defense, the Lakers stars outshone anything Phoenix could put together.

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Davis scored 18 of his 34 points and James added 10 in the third quarter, leading the Lakers to a 109-95 win, putting them ahead 2-1 in their first-round series with the Suns. James had 21 points and nine assists while Dennis Schroder added 20 points.

The duo outscored the Suns 28-23 in the second quarter, giving the game some space after a defensive-dominated first half.

The Lakers were on their way to a blowout win before one loud fan in the 109 section yelled "not today," during a Cameron Payne shot attempt. Payne connected and looked directly at the fan.

The fan kept talking, and Payne kept scoring, making his next two three-pointers, while quickly helping the Suns cut a 21-point lead down to eight with less than three minutes to play.

But the Lakers had the Suns frustrated, Devin Booker getting ejected in the final minute after he shoved Schroder as he drove to the basket. Booker scored 19 points on 6-of-19 shooting. In the aftermath of that, Jae Crowder was also ejected for adding a mid-air shove to Schroder.

With an estimated 7,500 fans at the game – the most this season at Staples Center – James had the crowd on their feet in the fourth, torching series-villain Crowder with a flurry of moves, capped with an acrobatic reverse layup.

Thursday was the Lakers’ first home playoff game since 2013, when the team started Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock, Earl Clark, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard against the San Antonio Spurs. It was their first playoff win at Staples since 2012.