Five matches, five defeats. This is the Lakers’ away record since the start of the season. And as they are currently on a “road trip”, the setbacks pile up as LeBron James and his band now have three defeats in a row. The last one in Houston is undoubtedly the most disappointing.
Because unlike the matches in Orlando and Miami, Los Angeles clearly missed out on their meeting. Against a team which, like the Magic, had a perfect or almost perfect match, this results in a heavy but logical defeat (128-94).
LeBron James can’t reach a conclusion
However, despite this bad patch, the time for analysis has clearly not come on the Californian side. “I have no evaluation to make”released LeBron James after the meeting to ESPN.
To justify this sluggish start to the season (3 victories in 8 matches), the Lakers insist on absences. Anthony Davis, injured against the Heat, was not there in Texas, just like Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jalen Hood-Schifino, not to mention Gabe Vincent, stuck in the infirmary for several days.
“ We cannot build cohesion if the team is not complete. It’s that simple. We are diminished because of injuries,” continues LeBron James. “We juggle with circumstances, with absent players,” explains Darvin Ham, who goes in the same direction as his star. “But afterward, no one will feel sorry for us, especially when we’re the Lakers. »
Not an excuse, but an important explanation
Injuries obviously don’t help, but the Lakers’ problems go deeper than just the lack of certain players. Offensively, the team is looking for itself and it’s very messy, with a lot of one-on-one phases. Defensively, it’s also very average.
So much so that Los Angeles has developed the bad habit of starting meetings very badly. One number sums it up perfectly: the Lakers have been dominated by 74 points in the first quarters since the start of the season !
“We need to relax and find the anchor point that will allow us to move in the right direction,” believes D’Angelo Russell. “Being healthy is the first thing. The second is to play for each other. It starts there: having the mentality of playing for others, of making life easy for your teammates. »
Rui Hachimura, very good in Houston, judges that “Every day we have a different team, with changing players. It’s like we have transfers every day“ .
Will the return of the injured solve all the problems in Los Angeles? This is what the players are hoping for. “We don’t want to use it as an excuse, but more as something to keep in mind. Things would be different with them, except it doesn’t work like that”concludes Taurean Prince.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| LeBron James | 7 | 35.9 | 56.1 | 32.5 | 65.0 | 0.4 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 5.9 | 4.3 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 25.3 |
| Anthony Davis | 7 | 36.8 | 55.3 | 42.9 | 88.4 | 3.1 | 8.9 | 12.0 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 23.9 |
| Angelo Russell | 7 | 35.1 | 44.6 | 27.9 | 90.5 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 6.4 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 17.3 |
| Austin Reaves | 7 | 32.8 | 43.8 | 31.3 | 78.3 | 1.4 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 2.0 | 14.0 |
| Taurean Prince | 5 | 30.1 | 41.9 | 38.5 | 83.3 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 10.2 |
| Christian Wood | 7 | 23.7 | 50.0 | 41.7 | 66.7 | 0.9 | 5.9 | 6.7 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 8.9 |
| Rui Hachimura | 3 | 14.8 | 42.1 | 33.3 | 83.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 8.0 |
| Gabe Vincent | 4 | 28.4 | 39.3 | 7.1 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 2.5 | 6.0 |
| Cam Reddish | 7 | 19.6 | 31.0 | 15.4 | 80.0 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 4.0 |
| Max Christie | 4 | 15.4 | 35.3 | 12.5 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 3.8 |
| Colin Castleton | 1 | 4.1 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Jaxson Hayes | 6 | 9.1 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 1.5 |
| Alex Fudge | 1 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Maxwell Lewis | 2 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| From me Hodge | 1 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
