The Los Angeles Lakers fell to 3-5 on the season with an embarrassing 128-94 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
As they have in a number of games this year, they showed a lack of effort, intensity and aggression. That combination led to them being outrebounded, 57-34 and to them being outscored in second-chance points (24-3), fast-break points (20-9) and points in the paint (68-42).
All those areas have been sore points for the Lakers to start this season. However, a new problem has developed: injuries and the associated problems.
With a number of players being in and/or out of the lineup since the exhibition season, including Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, Taurean Prince, Gabe Vincent, Jaxson Hayes and now Anthony Davis, the team simply hasn’t seemed to be on the same page.
After Wednesday’s game, a number of players spoke about this problem.
Hachimura
Hachimura missed L.A.’s last four games with a left eye contusion, and he also spent time in concussion protocol. Against Houston, he played very well, scoring 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot. But just about no one else joined him on his level of initiative.
He had an interesting way of describing the Lakers’ changing rotations.
Via ESPN:
“Every day, we have a different lineup, we play with different guys, new guys come in,” Hachimura said. “It’s almost like we have a trade every day, you know?”
Prince
Prince was out for two games due to a knee ailment before returning to the lineup on Monday against the Miami Heat. He has been the Lakers’ starting small forward, at least until Vanderbilt returns from a bout of left heel bursitis he has been dealing with for several weeks.
He admitted it’s hard to not use key players being out as an excuse or to keep thinking about them.
“So it’s like, just putting your mind around what could be or the pieces that we are missing — you don’t want to use that as an excuse but you use it as something you keep in the back of your mind where you just know certain things could be different given a certain situation,” Prince said. “But life don’t work that way.”
D'Angelo Russell
Russell had a strong outing with 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting despite struggling in the first half. He had a more constructive perspective on the Lakers’ lack of lineup continuity this season.
“We just need to relax and figure out where the root of where we’re going to start trending in the right direction,” Russell said. “And I think getting healthy first is one. Two, just playing for one another. I think that’s the first start: having that mentality we’re going to play for each other and just make things easier for each other.”
When a team is dealing with key injuries, it has to stay grounded in its core principles and step up the level of effort and intensity. It’s that next man up mentality the Lakers may lack right now.
LeBron James
James seemed somewhat despondent after the game against the Rockets. He was a little short with the media, but he offered a simple answer when asked why his team isn’t quite on the same page right now.
"We can't build cohesion if we don't have our unit… We're very depleted on the injury side." LeBron James speaks on the #Lakers early struggles. pic.twitter.com/QAK1QthETo
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 9, 2023
Darvin Ham
The Lakers’ head coach acknowledged there hasn’t been consistency with the players he has had available from game to game. But he also implied that is no excuse.
“At the end of the day, you know no one’s gonna feel sorry for you, especially when you’re a Los Angeles Laker.” Darvin Ham speaks on starting 0-5 on the road this season. pic.twitter.com/NBNz29oees
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 9, 2023
“We’re juggling different circumstances — guys being in and out of the lineup,” Ham said. “But at the end of the day, no one is going to feel sorry for you, especially when you’re a Los Angeles Laker.”
The team will head to Arizona to face Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns on Friday to wrap up its four-game road trip. It will be its first in-season tournament game of the year, and Ham said it needs to be “the hardest-working, most competitive, most together team on the floor.”
The Lakers haven’t won a game away from Crypto.com Arena yet this season.
