Earlier this season, the vibes were incredible for the Lakers. Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić were alternating 40-point games, role players were showing up nightly and wins were stacking up quickly.
Rarely
is everything sunshine and roses for a whole season in the NBA, though. Now, the Lakers find themselves in a much different situation.
Losers of three straight, all in blowout fashion, the team is now trying to figure out answers to problems that didn’t exist in recent weeks and months. After Thursday’s defeat to the Rockets, Jake LaRavia admitted what has become increasingly clear with the team.
Every NBA team will experience moments like this in a season. That being said, these aren’t new problems the Lakers are going through. They’ve been simmering under the surface for the team even in wins, often masked by those brilliant outings by Austin and Luka.
This will serve as an inflection point in the season for the Lakers. It will either be the moment the team addressed the issues at hand, something that likely will be done at the “uncomfortable” practice head coach JJ Redick had planned for Saturday, or it will be the moment when the faults of the team became too much to overcome.
As brilliant as their stars are, they can only paper over the cracks for so long. Their play and the roster’s chemistry allowed the team to jump out to a hot start, but that’s not a sustainable formula for an entire NBA season.
The Lakers are clearly disconnected and the longer that continues, the more the losses will pile up.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
