The Lakeshow Review

One step forward, two steps backwards. After a promising home victory against the Atlanta Hawks, the Lakers floundered their way to a disappointing showing at home against the Charlotte Hornets. Defensively, the team collapsed and is badly in need of some adjustments. Offensively, they’re still very top heavy, and lack the ancillary bench pieces to consistently supplement their stars’ production. Tonight was a tough watch, as the team fell behind early to a hot shooting team, and simply couldn’t recover, eventually dropping the game 135-117. A player like Austin Reaves is clearly missed, but the team needs to find ways to stay competitive, with tonight being a substantial setback. We’ll see how they respond.

Charlotte’s starters had their way with LAs defense, with LaMelo Ball leading the way with 30 points (on nine three pointers), six rebounds and 11 assists. Brandon Miller added 26 points and five assists, while Miles Bridges had 25 points, eight boards and four dimes. Kon Knueppel also chipped in with 19 points. The Lakers had a tough time keeping up with that type of production, as Luka Dončić had 39 points and four assists, while draining six treys. LeBron James had another good game with 29 points and eight boards. Jake LaRavia (18 points), Deandre Ayton (12 points) and Marcus Smart (10 points) all found themselves in double digit scoring, however, the Lakers as a team only managed to score nine total bench points. This combined with the porous defense made it impossible to weather Charlotte’s offensive onslaught.

While Charlotte’s 15-26 record is that of a mediocre club, they have been known to go on a heater as of late. They recently took down the NBA’s defending Champs OKC Thunder on the road, winning by 27. So they aren’t a team devoid of talent, despite their inexperience. Tonight they had it going, and the Lakers’ defense made sure to elevate their confidence. I sound like a broken record at this point, but the team’s defensive switching is atrocious, and a constant source of defensive breakdowns. Guys simply aren’t fighting through screens, and screener defenders are failing to switch on to the ballhandler swiftly and aggresively. This is both an effort and game-planning issue, with players getting lost on switches and the coaching staff failing to dial the right adjustments (maybe start pre-switching these actions). Charlotte also did a great job of forcing LAs low man (in most cases Ayton) to leave his feet, leading to numerous dump-offs for easy layups. Just a bad effort defensively, compounded by a hot shooting night from the Hornets; 54% from the floor, 47% from three and 94% from the charity stripe.

LA had nothing offensively tonight, and like I’ve remarked before, when this team struggles to score, their defensive morale suffers. On the other hand Charlotte had 34 total assists, to LAs 18. They were also crushed at the glass, 50 to 35. Some of this due to the absence of Jaxson Hayes, who has played inspired basketball as of late. Deandre Ayton was underwhelming again, scoring just 12 points to go with six rebounds. Defensively, he’s just not enough of a presence down low to offset LAs shortage of perimeter stoppers, offering minimal resistance at the basket. When you factor in his low motor (some nights he runs the court like a gazelle, others like a middle-aged t-rex), lack of rebounding and overall effort, it’s becoming evidently clear that Ayton is merely a stopgap solution to the center position and not a longterm answer.

Right now the Lakers aren’t competing and are unfocused. They constant whining to the referees leads to easy transition opportunities for the opposition. Tonight, you could see Hornets Head Coach Charles Lee consistently yell at his players demanding them to run on LA each time Luka, Ayton or LeBron stopped to complain to the refs. It’s an easy 5 on 4 very single time. The main culprits, however, continues to be the defensive lapses and the lack of complimentary offense. LaRavia, Ayton, Smart and Vanderbilt as a group are solid, yet wildly inconsistent. Some nights they’ll give you great production, some nights they’ll look like the Washington Generals. The lack of consistency is startling, and often a massive handicap, one that’s too big to overcome. Furthermore, the team has gotten away completely from running pick-and-roll. That crisp ball screen action with Luka and Ayton, or even Luka and LeBron, is becoming more scarce each game. Lately, the team is too reliant on iso ball, which is made worse by the lack of timely off-ball cutting and absence of dynamic offensive players. JJ Redick needs to instill the pick-and-roll back on the menu, with many variations and counters. With Rui back, that gives them a great option to slot at the corner or on the single side. Instead of dumping the ball to Ayton down low, it’s time to put him back in screen and roll action consistently.

The Lakers have failed to take advantage of the their lax schedule early in January. The team is 1-4 in their last five games, with a numbers of those losses qualifying as missed opportunities. Losses against the likes of Milwaukee, Sacramento and Charlotte aren’t ideal, especially in the Western Conference, where the margins of error are so thin. LA will get a back-to-back during the weekend, against Portland and Toronto, before embarking on another lengthy eight-game road trip where the competition will ramp up. Ideally, one would like to see the team go at least 4-4, which means they’ll have to do their best to nail these next two contests. The team is clearly in a funk, while also clearly missing their second best player in Austin Reaves. Hopefully LeBron can starting earning that gaudy $56M salary and have his numbers translate to actual wins. Lately Luka has been picking it up, but chemistry and cohesion continue to be glaring areas ripe for improvement. They clearly need some momentum, so it’ll be wise to utilize these next two games as tuneups for the upcoming road trip. Go Lakers.