After losing to the Boston Celtics by 11 points on Christmas Day, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to 16-15 on the season. It was a continuation of a desultory December that saw them win the in-season tournament in impressive fashion, only to lose six of their next eight games.
They have been getting healthier throughout the month, but they still aren’t whole. Guard Gabe Vincent, who had been out for several weeks with a knee ailment, returned for one game only to go on the shelf again. He will reportedly have knee surgery, which will entail a recovery period of six to eight weeks.
Other than that, L.A. hasn’t had all of its other players active for that long, and it went to a new starting lineup on Saturday versus the Oklahoma City Thunder. That all adds up to plenty of upheaval in the middle of the season.
When asked about it, as well as where the team is relative to the NBA’s elite following Monday’s loss to Boston, LeBron James said it isn’t where it wants to be. He also seemed to imply that its lack of health is the chief reason for that predicament.
LeBron James says the Lakers’ lack of health relative to the league’s top teams has been a challenge in developing the consistency needed to compete at their best. “We’re still trying to figure out our situation as far as how we want to continue to attack each game” pic.twitter.com/JdU0DjoOlQ
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 26, 2023
The Lakers have been on the road for most of December, but their schedule will start to ease up. After playing the woeful Charlotte Hornets at home on Thursday, they will have a challenging set of back-to-back road games this weekend versus the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans.
But after that, 11 of their following 12 games will be at Crypto.com Arena. Overall, other than their six-game “Grammy” road trip in a few weeks, they will have only three games outside the Pacific time zone between the beginning of January and the last week of March.
