EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Anthony Davis toyed with the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

He made shot after shot after shot until it probably wasn’t funny any longer for the Rockets, maybe like the varsity guy crushing the freshman team in practice on a random winter afternoon.

Davis was the main reason the Lakers beat Houston, 120-102. He made his first nine shots, finally doing the impossible by missing one midway through the third quarter.

For good measure, he made 9 of 10 free-throw attempts on the way to 27 points. This was after sitting out a game because of a sore hip.

“It was good to see the ball go through the rim tonight,” Davis told Spectrum SportsNet. “We’ve just got to keep that going.”

Davis did plenty of damage against Houston in last season’s Western Conference semifinals, but that was a different Rockets team. They employed Coach Mike D’Antoni’s small-ball offense and had small forwards masquerading as big men — Robert Covington is only 6 feet 7 and P.J. Tucker is all of 6-5.

Houston hired a new coach this season and had more traditional players in the post Sunday — Christian Wood and DeMarcus Cousins. It didn’t help.

Davis wasn’t the only big man to puncture the Rockets. Montrezl Harrell had 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting.

Second-year player Talen Horton-Tucker also had a night to remember, compiling a career-high 17 points by making 7 of 8 shots. He also had a career-high 4 steals, his solid defense quickly becoming a hallmark of the 20-year-old’s game.

In more bad news for the Rockets, they play the Lakers again on Tuesday.