An injury-plagued Lakers team suffered its fifth consecutive loss yesterday, and it was a bad one. The club fell 111-104 at home against the Sixers, who had lost nine of their previous 10 games and hadn’t won the road in nearly two months. The defeat dropped the Lakers to 13-18, good for 13th in the West, but the schedule at least offers a little hope — L.A.’s next two contests are at the Staples Center vs. the 6-24 Bucks and the 9-24 Jazz. Here’s more on the Lakers:
- According to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, the Lakers approached the Nets earlier in the month to see if Brooklyn had any interest in a swap centered around Pau Gasol and Brook Lopez. The exploratory talks, which happened before Lopez’s injury, didn’t go anywhere, as the Nets balked at the idea. However, Stein points out that it’s still noteworthy, since it shows the Lakers might be willing to trade for players whose contracts extend beyond even 2015, which would represent a shift in their philosophy.
- At the same time, Stein cautions that determining how serious the Lakers were about Lopez is tricky, since the team was known to be gauging Pau’s trade value earlier in the season, before pulling him off the market.
- In a piece for the Los Angeles Times, Eric Pincus examines the upcoming contract decisions for the Lakers, who have four players on non-guaranteed deals: Shawne Williams, Xavier Henry, Ryan Kelly, and Kendall Marshall. Williams and Henry, who have each started several games, appear safe, and Mike D’Antoni is a fan of Kelly, but Marshall may have reason to worry about his job security, Pincus writes. The 2012 lottery pick is on a two-year non-guaranteed contract which could be worth nearly $1.5MM in total if he sticks around.
- D’Antoni on Marshall: “He’s trying to find his way in the league. We hope that maybe garbage time in our favor or something would happen that we get a look at him, but I can’t grasp for straws.”