Without three important pillars, including spiritual leader LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers just suffered their second consecutive defeat.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ soaring start to the Luka Doncic era has been halted by two consecutive defeats, which have occurred in the past three days.
They first lost to the defending champions Boston Celtics on Sunday, a game in which LeBron James suffered an injury of unknown severity.
The second defeat came today when the Lakers lost to the Brooklyn Nets, who are fourth from bottom in the Eastern Conference with fewer wins (22-42, 12th place) than the Los Angeles Lakers have lost all season.
Luka Doncic had a triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 steals. Austin Reaves scored 17 points with 8 rebounds and 10 assists.
Both took turns with 2 clutch 3-pointers at the end of the match to keep the hope of victory alive, but the Los Angeles Lakers still lost to the Brooklyn Nets with a score of 108-111.
Going into this match, the Los Angeles Lakers were without three key players: LeBron James (groin strain), Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes (both with knee injuries).
This puts Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in charge. Center Alex Len makes his first start for the Lakers, while Dalton Knecht is also trusted from the start.
Things started off well as the Lakers took a 15-point lead early in the second half, suffocating their opponents with an all-out offensive and defensive style of play. However, this performance only lasted for one half.
The LA team then played lifelessly and had almost no communication on defense, allowing the Brooklyn Nets to erase the gap and at one point take an 8-point lead.
The clearest proof of the Lakers’ lack of vitality was that they lost contact and defenders continuously in the last minute of the match, allowing the Brooklyn Nets to have 2 extremely simple scoring opportunities at important moments.
Even though Doncic and Reaves had two very difficult 3-pointers to cut the gap to 2 points twice, the two aforementioned defenses still put the game out of reach for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Despite having a triple-double, Luka Doncic had a rather “eye-catching” shooting record with only 8-26 FG (3-10 3PT). Austin Reaves was not much better with only 3-14 FG, bringing the total shooting performance of the two stars to 11-40 FG (4-15 3PT) for the whole match for 39 points.
Two commendable names for the Lakers today were Gabe Vincent (8-12 FG, 6-9 3PT with 24 points), Jordan Goodwin (6-8 FG, 17 points, 8 rebounds) and somewhat Dalton Knecht (19 points, 8-18 FG).
Alex Len showed that he still could not integrate with the Lakers when he played only 13 minutes, had 3 personal fouls and did not score any points despite playing from the start.
Things will get even tougher for the Los Angeles Lakers as they prepare to enter a series of four games in five days with two back-to-back sets.
The Lakers will first face the 2021 (Milwaukee Bucks) and 2023 (Denver Nuggets) NBA champions, this Friday and Saturday, respectively.
After a day of rest, Luka Doncic and his teammates will play the second pair of back-to-back matches against the Phoenix Suns (Monday, March 17) and San Antonio Spurs (Tuesday, March 18).
