Lakers struggling to find cohesion amid injuries, but some problems go beyond health
The Athletic has live coverage of Lakers vs Suns in the quarterfinal of the NBA In-Season Tournament.
During the opening moments of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2023-24 season, Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka stood in the team’s theater room and gave a state of the union address on Media Day.
Advertisement
As the rest of the league loaded up in a starry arms race, with the likes of the Phoenix Suns, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks (and eventually LA Clippers) adding complementary star power, Pelinka touted the Lakers’ continuity and depth.
“We might have the deepest team in the league,” Pelinka said in a snippet on Spectrum SportsNet. “That depth is what’s going to get us back in this room in June.”
But even the deepest teams can only withstand so much. Eight games into the season, the Lakers have yet to enjoy the fruits of their roster construction due to a combination of injuries to key players and underperformance from their available supporting cast.
On Wednesday, the Lakers fell in an embarrassing 128-94 wire-to-wire blowout loss to the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center. Los Angeles dropped to 3-5 on the season and is now 0-3 on their four-game road swing and 0-5 on the road this season. The Lakers close out their trip Friday in Phoenix in their first In-Season Tournament matchup.
The injury-riddled Lakers suffered their latest blow less than an hour before tip-off when Anthony Davis was ruled out due to left hip spasms he suffered late in the first half of Monday’s 108-107 loss to the Miami Heat. Davis joined Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion), Jarred Vanderbilt (left heel bursitis), Jaxson Hayes (left ankle sprain) and Jalen Hood-Schifino (right patella contusion) on the team’s revolving inactive list.
“It seems like we have one person that’s coming off of injury and then someone else going on the inactive list,” coach Darvin Ham told reporters after Wednesday’s loss. “So we just have to juggle all of that. I’m not discouraged or anything because we haven’t been whole all year.”
GO DEEPER
From LeBron and the Lakers to Wolves and Warriors, early NBA concerns and celebrations
On the one hand, Ham is right — the Lakers have been far from whole this season. Vanderbilt, their best perimeter defender, has missed the entire season. Rui Hachimura and Vincent have each missed four games. Taurean Prince and Hayes have each missed two games. Now, Davis has missed a game, with no guarantee he’s back for Friday’s tilt with Phoenix. Though their principal figures — LeBron James, Davis, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell — had been fully healthy until Wednesday, the Lakers’ supporting cast has fluctuated too often to establish a rhythm. They only had nine active roster players against the Rockets, with only one center (Christian Wood) and technically no backup point guard.
Advertisement
“We can’t build cohesion if we don’t have our unit,” James said. “It’s that simple. It’s just — we’re very depleted on the injury side.”
On the other hand, there are non-health reasons to be concerned with Los Angeles’ poor start. The starting lineup of Davis, James, Prince, Reaves and Russell has been subpar. The team’s 3-point shooting has been historically awful. Defensive rebounding and transition defense are atop the to-do list in every news conference, yet both remain issues (the Lakers rank 30th in opponent second-chance points; they’re fifth in opponent fast-break points, but that doesn’t include teams scoring on them in their early offense). Ham hasn’t always pushed the right buttons, with the rotation or schematically. Reaves and Russell have traded off bad games. Wood was scoreless against the Rockets, struggling in the exact situation the Lakers hoped he could provide an offensive lift with Davis out. Based on how the previous three seasons have gone and how this one has started, the Lakers can’t assume they’ll have reasonable health.
“No excuse for us tonight,” Prince said. “We definitely should have played better.”
The game was unsurprisingly swung in the first quarter, with the Lakers getting off to one of their trademark slow starts. Houston scored the first eight points, and that early run snowballed into a 13-point first-quarter deficit for Los Angeles. The Lakers have trailed by double-digits in the first quarter in six of their eight games, and their minus-74 scoring margin in the first quarter is the worst in NBA history through eight games, according to ESPN Stats & Info. No Laker has a positive plus-minus in the first quarter.
With Davis, Hayes and Vanderbilt out, the Lakers’ frontline was depleted. They started Wood at center and used a rotation of Wood, James and Hachimura in the middle through the first three quarters, even sprinkling in undrafted two-way rookie center Colin Castleton. The results were predictable: Houston outrebounded Los Angeles 57-34, including 14-5 on the offensive glass, which led to a 24-3 second-chance points advantage. They also outscored the Lakers 68-42 in the paint and 20-9 in fast-break points.
Advertisement
Their biggest issues persist on both ends (namely 3-point shooting and defensive rebounding). They’re also seemingly late to most loose balls, which largely comes down to effort, one of the few variables still within their control even if they’re dealing with injuries.
“It’s tough,” Ham said. “We’re juggling different circumstances, guys being in and out of the lineup. But at the end of the day, no one is gonna feel sorry for you, especially when you’re a Los Angeles Laker.”
GO DEEPER
The King vs. The Villain: Running clock of LeBron James-Dillon Brooks matchup
The lone “silver lining” that Ham highlighted after the game was Hachimura’s return and breakthrough performance. After finally beginning to heat up in the fourth quarter of the Kings’ loss on Oct. 29, Hachimura missed the ensuing four games due to the league’s concussion protocol. In his return against Houston, Hachimura led the team with 24 points (10-for-14 shooting) and eight rebounds. He said that while he was sidelined, he observed ways he could be more aggressive within L.A.’s scheme.
(Another positive, though the Lakers obvious would’ve preferred it happened under different circumstances, was James playing a season-low 27 minutes, thanks to him sitting for the entirety of the fourth quarter with the game out of reach.)
Russell (22 points) and James (18) were the only other Lakers in double figures. Overall, the group shot 42.9 percent and made just 7 of 25 3-point attempts (28.0 percent). They also struggled at the free-throw line, knocking down just 15 of their 24 attempts (62.5 percent).
It’s far too early to overreact and write the Lakers off as a contender. They earned the benefit of the doubt after their post-trade deadline turnaround last season. But that was a run sparked by external changes. These Lakers could eventually be on a similar trajectory, depending on how the next few weeks go.
James, whose voice carries the type of power that could set off a DEFCON alert with one critical remark, is refraining from judging the team.
Advertisement
“I don’t have an assessment,” he said bluntly.
In the short term, Ham must consider changing a starting lineup that just isn’t working. The Lakers have been outscored by 22.0 points per 100 possessions when the trio of Reaves, Russell and Prince have shared the floor together, according to NBA.com. Vanderbilt’s return would potentially solve some of the starting lineup’s issues with his point-of-attack defense, defensive rebounding and infectious energy, but it’s unclear when he’ll be back. Hachimura could be a temporary solution replacing Prince, as the Lakers’ best playoff lineups often featured him next to James and Davis. A more radical option is to split up the Reaves-Russell backcourt, though that would be a tough sell for either player.
This was always going to be a tough start for the Lakers. Six of their first nine games were on the road. They’ve played the Nuggets, Suns, Kings, Heat and Clippers, with another matchup Friday against a Suns team finally getting healthy. The Lakers were likely going to hover around .500 through their first 10 games, give or take a game on either side of the ledger.
Plus, reinforcements should be on the way soon. The Lakers are optimistic Davis could return Friday. Hayes is day-to-day, according to Ham.
Until the Lakers gets more reps together, it’s difficult to assess how high their ceiling is. But it’s also apparent their floor is lower than they initially anticipated.
Most of the Lakers’ problems will be resolved once the team is whole, if it ever gets there, or at least healthier. They have yet to play a game with the projected top nine of their rotation and have played only three games with eight of the top nine (the first three games of the season, in which they went 1-2). Their depth is real as long as multiple players aren’t out.
But there are other problems — energy, effort, 3-point shooting, perimeter and non-AD interior defense — that will require the group to dig deep. And if that’s not enough, Ham and/or Pelinka will need to make grander changes to the rotation and/or roster.
Advertisement
“What we’re doing right now, we’re in the midst of figuring it out,” Russell said. “It’s too hard to say, ‘Oh, this isn’t right’ or ‘We should do that.’ We’re not healthy, that plays a (factor). So I think we just need to relax and figure out where the root of where we’re going to start trending in the right direction.”
GO DEEPER
NBA’s biggest surprises thus far: Emerging stars, disappointing starts and more
GO DEEPER
NBA Mock Draft: Alexandre Sarr leads uncertain class; Blue Devils, Huskies near top
(Top photo: Thomas Shea / USA Today)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGlrb2lmaXxzfJFsZmppX2WGcLjApJyrq12eu6vB0bJkrqiUlsGmedGomqSdpKh6rbHBq6anZZqWuqa%2Fjg%3D%3D