When a movie turns out to be a bust, Hollywood executives are quick to pull the plug. In the NBA, teams don't have the luxury of being able to go straight to streaming or to cancel upcoming projects. You've gotta ride it out, for better or for worse.
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking more and more like a bust every day. Wednesday night was the low point of the season, a 41-point spanking at the hands of the Miami Heat, whose previous biggest wins of the season were by 17 over the beleaguered 76ers and 20 over the hapless wizards.
Beleaguered and hapless are two words that aptly fit the Lakers right now, but they don't tell the entire story. L.A. looks old and broken at the moment, and worse yet they've been called out for a lack of effort by head coach JJ Redick on several occasions already.
If this was the NFL, the Lakers would be anxiously awaiting their bye week to get straightened out. If it was Old Yeller, somebody would take them out back and shoot them. Time will tell if the Lakers are able to right the ship, but for right now, it's all bad news coming out of L.A. Let's get into it.
The Lakers' propensity for getting blown out is reaching absurd levels
Following Wednesday's loss to the Heat, the Lakers are now 12-10 on the season. That's a better record than most teams can claim, but a look beyond just the standings proves that the Lakers are not as good as their record suggests.
When the Lakers win, it tends to be close. That's good in that it shows they can close out games. When they lose though, it's usually by a lopsided margin, and it's only getting worse recently.
The Lakers only have three single-digit losses on the season, and they've come at the hands of three quality teams: the Suns, Magic and Thunder. Seven of their losses have been of the double-digit variety, though. You might want to look away, Lakers fans.
Opponent | Margin |
|---|---|
@ Cleveland | 24 |
@Detroit | 12 |
@Memphis | 17 |
Denver | 25 |
@Phoenix | 27 |
@Minnesota | 29 |
@Miami | 41 |
That's a lot of beatdowns, and the thread that ties nearly all of them together is that all but one occurred on the road. The Lakers have looked like the worst team in the league outside of Crypto.com Arena, and after their recent string of blowout losses, their point differential is now the fourth-worst mark in the West. JJ Redick was right when he said, "I'm embarrassed. We're all embarrassed." Words are cheap, though. Now the Lakers need to do something about it.
The Lakers will go as LeBron James and Anthony Davis go. Lately, that has not been a good thing.
Not many teams can hope to win when their star player is in a slump. Basketball is a top-heavy sport, which is why the best players in the league make the big bucks.
Just like Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, the Lakers orbit two stars: LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Both players are really off their games lately, hence the recent run of blowouts.
Lakers fans have been freaking out over LeBron's play, which is arguably the worst stretch of his career. His three-point shot, which looked better than it ever has early in the year, has completely abandoned him recently. LeBron went 1-4 from three against the Heat, which sadly represented an improvement as he entered the game with 19 straight misses from deep.
Time may finally be catching up to LeBron, but Anthony Davis has no such excuses. AD has been brutal lately in a stunning turnaround, especially after his strong start had Lakers fans ready to volunteer for his MVP campaign.
Davis has been the Lakers' best and most important player, and the team has no chance if he's going to put up back-to-back stinkers like he did against the Wolves and Heat. He shot only 25 percent combined in both games, and though he's done more damage at the free throw line than any player in the league, in these two losses he only got to the line eight times in total.
The scoring margins referenced above prove that the Lakers don't have a lot of margin for error. If LeBron and Davis don't regain their form, there are going to be more ugly results in Laker Land.
Lakers injury update: Jarred Vanderbilt experiences a setback, Jaxson Hayes timeline revealed
The Lakers are neither a deep team nor a good defensive one, which is why they've so desperately needed Jarred Vanderbilt back in the lineup. Vanderbilt hasn't played a game all year after undergoing surgeries on both feet in the offseason, and he's not set to return any time soon after it was reported that he's now dealing with fluid buildup in his left knee.
This will keep Vanderbilt out until at least January, and any other setback could mean that he won't suit up until after the All-Star break, if at all this season. If GM Rob Pelinka is going to make any moves before the deadline, he probably needs to operate under the assumption that Vanderbilt won't be an asset this year and trade for a defense/energy guy.
The Lakers are also thin in the post now that Jaxson Hayes is out again with a right ankle sprain. Hayes came back to the court against the Suns last week after missing two weeks with the injury, but played only one game before injuring it again.
ESPN's Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin reported on Saturday that Hayes would be sidelined for two to three weeks, which puts his return somewhere around L.A.'s stretch against the Wolves, Grizzlies and Kings (twice) from December 13-21.