The tone of the pre-All-Star break finale for the Real Lakers of Los Angeles may be its darkest yet. The Los Angeles Lakers ended their six-game road trip with a 117-113 loss in an uninspiring effort against a fun, but surefire lottery team.
LeBron James, who had a monster statline of 28 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds, was indicative of the way the Lakers played throughout night. While he and the Lakers did just enough to keep things close against the NBA’s most fun bad team, all that was evident was all that wasn’t there.
The defense for the Lakers, LeBron included, was non-existent. The game, which featured 23 lead changes was not as exciting as that usual indicator for a good game leads on. The Lakers were sleepwalking through the game and almost every extra-effort play on the night went to Atlanta.
Trae Young had an excellent game with 22 points and 14 assists while John Collins dominated the Lakers on the inside, posting up on switches and hitting both of his 3-point attempts.
While it won’t look as ugly on the schedule as the Indiana loss when it’s all said and done, their loss to Atlanta had all the trapping of a team that could not wait to get to the All-Star break. With odds makers now taking bets on Luke Walton’s replacements, you can probably include him among those who need to get away for a minute.
Given the events of the past two weeks and all that did or didn’t happen, it’s hard to blame them. But the standings do not believe in sympathy and it’s fair to wonder if Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss believe in it either. The Lakers are ever more likely of missing the playoffs with a 28-29 record, sitting 2.5 games out of the final playoff spot in the West.
