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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Sanjesh Singh

Lakers player grades: Late comeback vs. Nets falls short

The Los Angeles Lakers are now on a five-game losing streak after losing on Christmas to the Brooklyn Nets, 122-115.

The Nets hadn’t played in over a week due to game postponements caused by COVID-19 surges around the league, yet Brooklyn dropped 38 points in the first quarter.

Los Angeles responded with a 39-point second quarter to make the game interesting at halftime, and after once trailing by 17 points, L.A. took the lead in the first few minutes of the third.

However, L.A. reverted to old third-quarter woes and mustered just 20 points in the period and trailed by 23.

Again, the Lakers flipped the script and made a miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter. LeBron James, Stanley Johnson and Malik Monk were all key to the 22-3 run, but once L.A. tied the game at 115, it didn’t score again. Russell Westbrook missed point-blank shots near the rim, and Brooklyn escaped with a win despite scoring only 20 points in the final 12 minutes.

Here is how the Lakers, now 16-18, graded individually from the loss:

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