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LOS ANGELES — While the Lakers have their big three of LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves healthy and available, it hasn’t been smooth sailing.
After the team’s loss against the Celtics on Sunday, Lakers head coach JJ Redick said they were “awful” offensively. In their encore on Tuesday, LA had another poor performance, losing to the Magic 110-109.
The game ended in heartbreaking fashion with Luka passing up an open look and tossing the ball to LeBron, who had to heave a shot to beat the buzzer that bounced off the rim.
This sequence, featuring some poor offensive execution, has been far too common in Los Angeles. It’s a prime example of how the team hasn’t been able to find an offensive rhythm lately.
With LA needing every win possible in the crowded Western Conference, better offense is necessary, especially on a night where the other aspects of their game were good enough to earn the result.
“I thought we played well enough to win tonight,” Redick said postgame. “[We] certainly had the edge and played hard enough to win. We played together. We did our best to play the right way and share the basketball.”
With 24 assists on 40 makes, Redick is right that the ball was moving. And with Dendre Ayton finding a rhythm during the first half, things were looking up for LA early on.
“Well, my playmakers were feeding me the ball, and they just kept telling me do the same thing over and over,” Ayton said. “So, I just was making sure I was physical and I tried my best to score closest to the rim as much as possible so I can keep getting it down there. Tonight, they believed in their switches a lot, so I’m glad I got a chance to punish that just to switch it up a little bit and give them a different look.”
But Los Angeles slowly died in this game. Through three quarters, they took a double-digit lead and turned it into a home loss. They couldn’t take advantage of Orlando shooting 24% from deep because they were outrebounded 48-40.
And as individuals, none of their big three stepped up.
Reaves is known for being an aggressive player who gets inside the paint and to the free-throw line. He only took five shot attempts in the first half and didn’t score until the third quarter.
Luka is the team’s bestplayer and on-ball creator. Against the Magic, he went 8-24 from the field and converted on just two of his ten3-point attempts. Perhaps that poor shooting is why he became passive on that final possession.
And LeBron had a respectable game, scoring 21 points, but most of that damage came during his first six minutes of play, where he scored 10 points. After that, he was rather pedestrian,and that’s not going to be enough when his co-stars are struggling.
LA needed more from their starson Tuesday night and no one was able to respond.
It’s clear the Lakers’ strength isn’t defense. They are ranked 24th in the league in defensive rating. So, they have to win games with their offense. That shouldn’t be as much of a problem with two All-Stars and Reaves, who is also known for putting the ball in the hoop.
However, they posted their second-lowest point total of the season against the Celtics and shot horrendously from three against Orlando, going 9-29 as a team.
Whether it’s because of a lack of time working together, their opponents throwing different defensive coverages at them or just a cold streak, the fact is they haven’t been able to, as a collective, consistently score since the All-Star break.
With 25 games left, time is running out for them to figure things out.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.