A little more than a quarter of the way into the season, the Lakers are below .500 again with a 10-11 record.
They lost at home Friday night in triple-overtime against a Sacramento team that had lost eight of its past 10 games. The Kings were without two of their best players, starters Harrison Barnes (foot) and Richaun Holmes (non-COVID illness), per Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
The Lakers were up by 13 points in the fourth quarter and led by seven in the first overtime before letting both leads slip away, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook played a combined 150 minutes in the loss, which was the team’s second straight overtime game, and fifth of the season.
The on-court fit of the “big three” has been rough thus far, but Davis thinks a winning streak could be around the corner.
“You know, 10-11, I mean, we could go on a 10-game winning streak, 12-game winning streak, now the narrative is different,” Davis said. “You know, 10-game winning streak, we’re 20-11. Now we’ll shut everybody up. But it’s on us. We’re going to have to do it. It’s not just going to be easy.”
Coach Frank Vogel might be on the hot seat despite the team winning a championship a little over a year ago.
Projected rotation pieces Kendrick Nunn (knee) and Trevor Ariza (ankle) have yet to play for Los Angeles this season. Third-year wing Talen Horton-Tucker missed 13 games due to thumb surgery, while LeBron has missed 11 (10 to injury, one to a suspension). The team is 6-4 with James in the lineup and 4-7 without.
However, the Lakers have had a relatively easy schedule, having played 13 home games versus eight away. They’ve already played the Rockets, Spurs, and Thunder twice each, and barely beat the Pistons (they went 5-2 in those games, blowing big leads in both losses to the Thunder).
The season numbers look pretty troubling; the Lakers are 23rd in the league in offensive rating, 20th in defensive rating, and 24th in net rating (-3.0), per Basketball-Reference.
During preseason, we ran our annual Over/Unders for the 2021/22 season. 58.2% of our readers predicted that the Lakers would eclipse their projected win total of 52.5 games. In order to win 53 games, the Lakers would need to finish their remaining 61 games with a 43-18 record — a .705 win percentage.
What do you think? Do you still think the Lakers will win 53-plus games? Vote in our poll, then head to the comments below to share your thoughts!
Even healthy they look like a .500 team. They have played a easy schedule and is barely .500. There is no chemistry or defense with the team. By the end of the year i can see them burned out by over playing their starters.
The Lakers are hot garbage right now. They need to play their bench guys.
If I were coach I’d play Lebron and Russ separately. I wouldn’t have them on the floor together.
I think Russ would be affective with AD and Melo.
Lebron could hog the ball with AD and the bench guys l.
Russ has never been a team player he cares more about a triple double than playing defense. They do not have enough defensive players to keep the game from being a score fest. They are giving up way too many points to be a good team. left with nothing of value to trade the team is stuck in the mud this year.
Lakers need someone like Wiggins
In fact Wiggins is better than any of the Lakers
The biggest reason is that Wiggins has 17 games over .500
Wiggins are more focus on defense than those Lakers all time greats
I expected a lot more from this group… Too many turnovers and seems like all they wanna do is shoot 3’s when there behind instead of driving to the basket for the easy score! Especially in OT!!! It’s like they reach a certain point and then they just give up. I believe they can turn things around and still make the playoffs but they need to stop losing to teams like the Thunder and Kings..
Not a chance. AD hasn’t even gotten hurt yet. And I don’t know how much longer 37 year old Carmelo can give you 30 MPG. This team is trash. But on the positive side, they have their big three locked up for next season too.
The Lakers can’t win with Westbrook and an almost 37-year-old who is 3rd all-time in regular-season + playoff minutes that started getting injured frequently in the last few years? Who could have seen this coming?!?!?!
I swear that Vegas put them a ridiculous second in title odds just to get the casuals to put down money on them. Meathead Lakers fans are good marks for easy money.
IMO
Top 5 overpaid players ranking
1. Wall -need to rebuild the Wall
2. Russell (Westbrook)
3. Kevin Love
4. Russell (DLo)
5. McCollum
Excluding Irving and Simmons
AD’s 10-gm winning streak quote is hilarious. Zero chance of that happening.
Lakers next 10 games:
Vs Pistons, @ Kings, vs Clippers, vs Celtics, @ Grizzlies, @ OKC (B2B), vs Magic, @ Mavs, @ TWolves, @ Bulls
The article points out how LA barely beat Detroit and lost to OKC twice. But the two wins over Houston were also close, one was by 10 points and the other by just two.
@GWP
Do you want this rankings?
Thunder
Magic
Rockets
Lakers
Pistons
Lakers are a team full of all time greats
Looking at the 4 Factors ranks on both O and D, LAL has declined in 7 of the 8 factors compared to their Championship season.
OFF (Championship rank…current rank)
eFG 5…13
TOV 23…27
ORB 4…20
FTA/FGA 15…15
DEF
eFG 7…19
TOV 3…10
DRB 7…23
FTA/FGA 16…22
Biggest declines are OReb, Dreb, and Def eFG%. I was surprised at the change in rebounding. This could be remedied with more commitment/motivation and could raise OFF eFG with more OREB and lower the opponents eFG by denying them easy 2nd chance pts.
Im not surprised tbh. The focus was wrongly placed on age and lack of shooting (haven’t been a problem ) when really it was the guard defense and rebounding that was always going to suffer
In a way the spacing issues run into the rebounding issues as you often just have 2 guys just sitting out at the 3 w AD in a high pick N roll and No C as DJ and DH are not quality options for starter minutes these days. This leads to nobody able to crash the boards or be a presence .
For def boards it looks to be a pure lack of effort, they lost yesterday giving up some off rebs at critical times which Sac then cashed in on big time
I wish I could say there’s an answer but I don’t see it
53 was always optimistic. the Lakers were realistically a 50 win team that could get lucky if everything went right since they brought in a bunch of veterans and needed time to gel. The west is too strong with Golden State, Phoenix and Utah clearly above a healthy Lakers team, Portland and Dallas as 1 though 6.
Something is obviously off with the squad. Obviously having LeBron and AD is a good start but after that is where things have been rough. We lost a lot of key rotation pieces and now the role guys aren’t clicking like the past couple years. Westbrook has so far been extremely disappointing to say the least. Hopefully once Ariza and Nunn come back we are able to get a more cohesive rotation going and I’m not opposed with Russ becoming a 6th man in order to make this happen. Unless he miraculously starts playing D, shooting better from 3 point range, and stops turning the ball over so frequently I’d say that the experiment has failed so far.
That’s no surprise anybody who watches basketball knew the lakers lost that trade and Westbrook would only hurt them
I was hopeful that Westbrook would do his best to fit into the role we needed him to fill. I watch the Lakers regularly, we’re definitely missing some key role players if we’re going to overcome this early season funk.
Last night was an excellent example of how the team implodes when they have a lead of at least 5 pts. AD wasn’t even trying last night, LBJ was stubborn trying to find his shot, Russ was simply just trying to be Russ. No ball movement, no plays, no pick/roll, no post-up, nothing. Everyone just stands around watching the guy with the ball hoping he does something. Nobody tries to rebound. Pathetic.
To be fair, the Kings and especially Fox was not missing much last night, even the tough shots.
Agree BB – This team has no right to be dancing around crip walking when they go up 7 to a Sac team at home sans Holmes and Barnes
There’s softness there, idk if it’s overconfidence or just a reflection of things to further come this year
Here comes LeBaby trying to join the Warriors for another easy championship. If pulling a KD is all it takes, Bron Bron will have his chopper fueled and ready at the airport.
No
Does it really matter about RS wins, seriously? SMH!
The 53 doesn’t matter if they make the playoffs, and I’m not really a fan of writing off teams before the 30 game mark when there are lots of new pieces.
If I was a Laker fan the needle would be moving a little on the panic meter, though. The Russ trade was a gigantic mistake. I’d also be worried that a coach who did a really good job last season may be on the hot seat for the repercussions of a trade he had no hand in, I’m sure.
A- Saving grace, The West can be navigated by a get hot team late this year. I think GSW PHX UT can be beat
B- I cant believe we are at A already, but I think the panic meter is def there and reading correctly
The panic meter needle in LA should definitely be moving a lot.