Lakers coach JJ Redick factors and direct his group throughout the fourth quarter of a loss to the Rockets on Thursday at Crypto.com Area.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Photographs)
When the Lakers have been climbing up the Western Convention standings, improbably profitable video games with LeBron James and Luka Doncic injured and celebrating Austin Reaves’ 51-point efficiency and ascent into stardom, the vibes have been excessive. Gamers jumped off the bench to cheer for one another. They championed group bonding workouts reminiscent of slideshow displays that launched themselves to one another and a subject journey to a Porsche driving expertise. All of it felt surprisingly straightforward, particularly for a group that had a number of new additions.
“We had it,” Redick stated wistfully Thursday. “We had it. I at all times say this about tradition, I at all times say this a few good group being a functioning organism.”
Redick snapped his fingers.
“It may possibly change like that,” he continued. “We don’t have it proper now.”
All three of the Lakers’ most up-to-date losses have been blowouts. With a mean margin of defeat of 20.7 factors, their complete level differential has dropped to minus-15 on the season, which ranks sixteenth within the NBA.
Ahead Jake LaRavia stated within the locker room that there felt like a “disconnect” on the group, however couldn’t verbalize extra about how issues had turned so abruptly. The group’s seven-game profitable streak on the finish of November seems like a distant reminiscence, though it ought to function a relentless reminder of how a group shouldn’t let its guard down, particularly when it was simply amassing wins off groups with dropping data.
“This [has] form of been the trending factor even once we have been profitable,” ahead Jarred Vanderbilt stated. “Clearly wins kinda shadow a number of stuff. But it surely’s been the identical just about all 12 months of how we completed video games, lose video games: transition protection, rebounding and stuff like that. It’s been a development all 12 months.”
LeBron James, who performed in his thirteenth sport this season after lacking the primary 14 video games due to sciatica, had 18 factors and 5 assists and declined to talk with reporters after the sport, together with Marcus Good (six factors, two rebounds) and Rui Hachimura (zero factors, two assists).
To additional exasperate the lingering damage bug, Reaves left the sport after the primary half due to left calf soreness. It was the identical calf that sidelined him for 3 video games final week.
