Aloha,
Missing 3 starters is a killer. It messes your game plan up. The first quarter was an example of that. We were completely disjointed on both sides of the ball and it took some time to settle in.
We saw why AD is so important to this team on defense. First the Spurs were not afraid of Hayes and Wood. They attacked the paint, getting a lot of little baby jumpers and points at the rim. And on the perimeter, we could not be as aggressive without AD having the teams back.
It also impacted the offense. Not just for what he scores, not just because we run the offense but also we didn’t get nearly as many open looks, especially from three because they didn’t have to collapse on AD.
Missing both Cam and DLO also took a toll. Basel had a career high 36 without Cam to check him. And we really missed DLO’s play making. And not having Austin to run the 2nd unit really hurt as well. We might have survived without AD if those two had played.
LeBron also was missing AD. They bottled him up pretty good. He made them pay with 14 assists but it made it difficult to score.
At some point it would be nice to be healthy. What a concept. We may see Vincent in the next couple of games which will be great. Hopefully we will have these other guys back for the Knicks.
That is an excellent summary of the game, Michael. With the injury woes continuing to mount, I don’t think the Lakers will ever find any chemistry.
The lineup keeps changing faster than the speed of light. With every little momentum they seem to gather, it all evaporates with new injuries. When I saw the starting lineup, I was startled. I couldn’t tell if it was a Lakers team or a G-league team. I mean, that feels like something out of the blue.
Also, it seems like it takes a career night from someone for a team to beat the Lakers. Against Dallas a few games ago, it was a career night for Dante Exum to help Dallas beat the Lakers. Last night against the Spurs it was a career night for Devin Vassel to help Spurs best the Lakers.
I am very frustrated with these injury problems. I don’t even know if we will ever have a healthy team for the rest of the year. This sucks, man.
I feel your pain Buba. Every team has injuries through out the year but ours seem to come in bunches. 3, 4, 5 guys at a time.
Not sure what it is about the guys we chose to be backup centers but once again it looks like neither Christian Wood or Jaxson Hayes is going to be able to play well enough to be Anthony Davis’ backup at center, much less to play alongside him.
What’s even more infuriating is we constantly get burned by the opposing team’s second string center. Last night was another example as we had no answer for Zach Collins. I still see our top roster priorities as upgrading Russell and Prince in the starting lineup but getting a quality defensive backup for AD has to be right there next on the list of things we need to win it all.
What’s frustrating is there are at least fair to great options to replace Russell or Prince but finding a good backup center to backup AD could be difficult. It’s why the Lakers need to start thinking outside the box and looking at trades for players like Smart and Markannen. Lauri has the size and length to backup AD at the five as well as play the three or four.