Lakers fall to Blazers 127-115

The Lakers were 26-31 going against the 27-29 Blazers in what was seemingly a must win for both teams. However, only one of those teams came in acting like it was a must win. The Blazers set franchise records in most 3s made led by their all-star Damian Lillard who had 30 points at halftime which included a last second heave at the end of the first half to put his team up by 21 going into the half. It was never close after that.

Lakers all-star LeBron James was out again with an apparent foot injury all though he seemed to be having an intense individual workout before the game. Anthony Davis had the quietest 19 pt 20 rebound game anyone can think of, as he seemed almost nonexistent on the court.

So, what happened with the Lakers? There were up 14-5 at the 6:37 mark of the first quarter. At around the 3 minute mark of the first, Blazers were up 3 and Darvin Ham decided to take out all his starters and have 5 bench players on the court with no real point guard (unless you consider Lonnie Walker IV to be one). It was downhill from there. Historic shooting levels from the Blazers and missed defensive assignments by the Lakers led to the perfect storm and by the end of the first quarter, Blazers were up 34-19.

Here is where the issue lies. As a team you just left your opponent go on a 29-5 run and to fix for that you decide to leave Anthony Davis and D’Angelo Russell on the bench to start the second quarter? Even if you want to sub in Dennis Schroeder since he’s your best defensive guard, why would you not put in Anthony Davis if he did not play more than 7 minutes in the first quarter? Anthony Davis has repeatedly claimed he is tired of winning, hell that’s why he sat on the bench as LeBron broke Kareem’s scoring record. If your team goes down 15 and they need their perennial all-star to come in and stop the bleeding, you as a head coach make sure to put him in.

Ham has made one mistake after another. The day the Lakers lost to the Thunder and LeBron broke Kareem’s record, Lakers were down 6 with 17 seconds left and they had 2 timeouts, one of which they could have used to advance the ball. Instead, no timeout was used and most of the clock was used before it became a 3 point game with not enough time to win it. Last night, Lakers went down by 15, you have to adjust your rotation. When Lakers were down 3 a timeout was called, but no timeout was called as the Blazers kept heating up.

After the game, when asked about letting the Blazers shoot a franchise record of 3PM, Ham said based on analytics they had the best defensive outing in the NBA. Are you serious??? You excuse to letting the game get away is analytics? I don’t know which data they were using, but the simple eye test from the first half will tell you the defense played by the Lakers was not great. If one player on the opposing team gets hot, it makes sense. If every man on the opposing team is raining 3s on you, it’s probably your defenses fault.

That mentality of excuses is exactly why the Lakers are most likely missing the play-in tournament. After last night, Lakers are 3 games out of the 10th seed and 5 games out the 6th seed with 24 games left to play. Lakers need to figure something out right now because Jazz, Blazers, and Thunder are all above the Lakers right now and all vying for the same spot. Lakers need to step up now and be aggressive every night. They need their coach to adjust in game and they need their stars to come out and be aggressive every night. Unless that’s not happening on a nightly basis, seems the Pelicans will make the playoffs and use the Lakers 2023 first round pick to draft a star from the lottery.